PETA Unveils Giant Binoculars at Oregon State Capitol to Show Lawmakers Inside Secretive Primate Center

For Immediate Release:
May 16, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Legislators will get an eye-opening view outside the Oregon State Capitol next week when PETA unveils “How the Other Half Lives.” This installation, featuring a 7.5-foot-tall pair of binoculars, contrasts footage of macaques thriving peacefully in their natural habitats with the harrowing conditions of those trapped in laboratories, including at Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Oregon National Primate Research Center where monkeys have died in a series of indefensible “accidents,” are forcibly restrained, have painful electrodes implanted, and more.

PETA’s installation is at the state capitol today to demand the closure of Oregon National Primate Research Center, afederally funded facility that cages, torments, and kills tens of thousands of monkeys in failed experiments that drain taxpayer money and endanger public health. The primate center is one of seven federally funded National Primate Research Centers around the country that kill hundreds of thousands of monkeys and receive billions in federal funds, yet failed to deliver promised vaccines or cures for human diseases

“Through these lenses, lawmakers can see what OHSU doesn’t want them to; monkeys confined in filthy metal cages barely bigger than their bodies and living in fear, while their wild kin thrive in rich forests, surrounded by family,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor on Primate Issues Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA urges legislators to address the monkey in the room: No more delays. No more diversions. No more excuses. Shut this failed monkey laboratory down.”

Where:           Outside the Oregon State Capitol, 945 State St., Salem

When:             Daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 19–May 22

Why:              This week, PETA was joined by dozens of Oregonians at the state capitol to ask lawmakers to close the primate center and amend Senate Bill 181 to prohibit experiments on monkeys. Currently, it prohibits state funds from being used for experiments on dogs and cats.

Macaques live in complex, matriarchal societies in their natural habitat, forging lifelong bonds, raising their young, and roaming miles daily. At OHSU’s primate center, experimenters have torn infant monkeys from their mothers to cause psychological damage and starved monkeys so they’ll “voluntarily” consume alcohol, before killing them. Other experimenters impregnate monkeys and expose them to dangerous levels of nicotine, inducing birth defects in their babies before killing and dissecting them. Recently, the center was hit with a critical violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act when a young monkey died of sepsis after staff ignored her symptoms and failed to provide necessary medical attention.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.