PETA’s Neon Highway Overpass Message—Close the OHSU Primate Laboratory
For Immediate Release:
April 4, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Just days before the Community Review Board finalizes its recommendation to the Oregon Health Authority on the proposed $8 billion merger of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Legacy Health, PETA will light up Portland’s busiest freeway with a searing demand: “CLOSE OHSU MONKEY LAB.”
Visible to thousands on I-5, the glowing message will cut through the dark on Friday and Sunday nights, shining a light on the cruel, wasteful, and disease-ridden National Primate Research Center at OHSU. The eye-catching highway message supports the demand of more than 10,000 Oregonians who are urging the review board to condition the merger on closing the primate center.
Where: Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge over I-5, 3236 S. Kelly Ave., Portland
When: Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
Why: The university’s primate center has failed to control the spread of potentially deadly pathogens among the more than 5,000 monkeys it breeds, confines, or imports. Monkeys harboring tuberculosis and a drug-resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) have been found at the center, posing a serious risk to staff. For decades, the university failed to recognize that a zoonotic form of diphtheria circulated among monkeys at the facility, putting workers at risk of infection.
PETA’s undercover video investigation into the primate center showed inadequate veterinary care, frightened monkeys huddled together, clutching each other for comfort, and primates forced to pick their food out of waste trays beneath their cages. The university has long violated the federal Animal Welfare Act. It was recently cited when an infant monkey was crushed to death by a steel guillotine-style door in front of her frantic mother. Federal records have shown careless handling of monkeys and workers drinking alcohol on the job.
The center was so short-staffed in 2022 and 2023 that it had to request special exemptions for sanitizing monkeys’ cages only half as often as required under federal law. In 2022, the school was fined $37,900 for nine serious violations, including an incident in which two monkeys were scalded to death when staff left them in a cage sent through a high-temperature cage washer.
“Monkeys suffer and die at this dangerous facility, which is a breeding ground for zoonotic pathogens,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “OHSU’s primate center isn’t just cruel—it’s a public health threat, and PETA is making sure the public and decision-makers can no longer look the other way.“
In nature, macaques live in large groups and focus intensely on social relationships. Infant macaques are adored, and female macaques remain in their birth group for life.
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.
