Investigation of ONPRC Reveals Horrifying Abuse of Monkeys Used in Useless Experiments

The Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) confines more than 4,000 monkeys who are used in cruel studies. This facility received more than $33 million in taxpayer money in 2007, much of which is used for needless studies of illnesses that have already been well researched using clinical data from humans.

During a four-month undercover investigation inside the facility, PETA documented monkeys who were driven insane by laboratory conditions, living in constant fear, confined to small cages, and traumatized by employees' rough handling.

In addition to other examples of cruelty observed at the ONPRC, sick monkeys received inadequate veterinary care and pain relief, employees chased terrified monkeys in their enclosures and pinned their arms behind their backs to force them into transfer boxes, employees sprayed water with high-pressure hoses into cages while monkeys were still in them, monkeys were forced to pick food from waste trays beneath cages, and monkeys showed signs of psychological disturbance such as frantic pacing, spinning, and rocking inside small steel cages. Please watch the video to learn more about the cruelty documented.

Many of ONPRC's studies have no clinical application in human beings, and many duplicate archaic research that has been conducted and funded repeatedly in the past. In 2002, Good Morning America hosted a three-part series called "You Paid for It!" that used ONPRC researcher Judy Cameron's work as an example of wasteful, taxpayer-funded projects, yet Cameron and her colleagues continue to do pointless and cruel experiments on animals. Below are examples of projects currently receiving federal funding at the ONPRC.

• Maternal Deprivation and Psychological Development: Infant monkeys are separated from their mothers to see the psychological damage. Read more.
• The Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Nonhuman Primate Organ Function and Physiological Responses to Stress: Kathy Grant starves monkeys so that they'll "voluntarily" consume alcohol and then kills them to see the effects that alcohol has on organ function. Read more.
• Maternal Nicotine Consumption and Fetal Lung Development: Eliot Spindel's experiments entail impregnating monkeys and injecting them with dangerous levels of nicotine. Read more.
• Maternal Obesity and Childhood Body Weight: Kevin Grove induces obesity and diabetes in female monkeys by feeding them a high-fat and high-calorie diet. Read more.
• AIDS/HIV: Michael K. Axthelm and Scott Wong infect monkeys with AIDS-like diseases. Read more.

The ONPRC neglects to consider the rights and welfare of these animals and continues to conduct this useless research using taxpayer money, even though non-animal alternatives for testing are available.

Help take a stand for animal rights, and take action against the ONPRC. Send a letter urging the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to stop funding cruel experiments that occur at the ONPRC. Since 1992, the NIH has funneled $7 million in taxpayer money to ONPRC researcher Eliot Spindel (also mentioned above) for cruel nicotine experiments on monkeys. Urge the NIH to immediately end funding for this and all other experiments performed on animals.

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