PETA Urges Probe After Whistleblowers Report Widespread Cover-Up at OHSU Primate Center

For Immediate Release:
June 27, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-531-7261

PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture today urging an investigation into whistleblower reports that senior leaders at Oregon Health & Science University’s Oregon National Primate Research Center are engaging in a far-reaching cover-up to avoid revealing possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and alleged violations of record-keeping, animal handling, and veterinary care regulations.

According to the whistleblowers, primate center leaders have instructed staff not to record deaths, injuries, and escapes from cages or enclosures, and to downplay the seriousness of what they include by using vague language in staff reports, effectively concealing violations from USDA inspectors. The lack of proper documentation has reportedly led to prolonged suffering for sick and injured monkeys, who are at risk of infection and other serious complications without timely veterinary care.

The insiders allege the instructions were given several months ago, just as the primate center came under scrutiny by the public and legislators.

Whistleblowers also say that monkeys in all colonies frequently escape from their enclosures—a violation under federal law—and that the stressed animals then fight, causing traumatic injuries.

A monkey caged at ONPRC, run by Oregon Health & Science University. Credit: PETA

“If primate center leaders are brazenly defying federal law by withholding information about monkeys’ injuries, illnesses, and deaths, their contempt for the animals they cage is obvious,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “The primate center should have been shut down years ago, when it was clear it couldn’t abide by animal protection laws, but now closure is imperative.”

At ONPRC, 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.

In nature, macaques live in large, tight-knit groups and cuddle together in their favorite sleeping trees at night.

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.