Infant Monkey Crushed to Death at OHSU; PETA Files Complaint

For Immediate Release:
June 8, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act during a botched “routine capture” at Oregon Health & Science University, in which a baby monkey was crushed to death in front of her frantic mother. In a statement about this incident, the university claimed the mother macaque behaved in “an unanticipated manner,” suggesting that the facility is unaware that mother monkeys will vociferously defend their infants. This protective instinct would be especially strong if other infants had previously been taken from her—as is likely the case. Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna:

The death of an infant monkey who was crushed by a steel door while her screaming mother watched is nauseating enough, but to then conclude that this incident was an “accident” is repugnant. The mother, imprisoned at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), was clearly trying to protect her baby from the impending harm of an approaching experimenter. In the commotion, the infant left her arms and fell into the path of the steel guillotine door of the enclosure, which had dislodged and crushed the baby, who was then euthanized, according to a university statement.

This is the same university where two monkeys were scalded to death in a high-temperature cage washer and where staff failed to notice that a monkey had escaped until they smelled his rotting corpse trapped behind a cage. OHSU’s admitted failure to stay fully staffed appears to be affecting its ability to care for animals. Understandably, few people want to work in a laboratory where newborn monkeys and their mothers are tormented in junk-food and alcohol studies. OHSU should close its animal laboratories immediately.

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