PETA Takes Message to OHSU Board: Stop Deadly OB/GYN Training on Live Animals

For Immediate Release:
April 18, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Portland, Ore. –

Bearing a banner that reads, “OHSU: Stop Mutilating Live Animals in OB/GYN Drills,” PETA supporters will rally inside Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) board of directors meeting on Friday, urging the school to end its invasive procedures on live pigs in its obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) physician residency training program.

When: Friday, April 19, 1 p.m.

Where: Robertson Life Sciences Building, Room 3A001, 3^rd Fl., 2730 S. Moody Ave., Portland

*PETA supporters urge OHSU’s board of directors to end pig mutilations during a previous protest. Credit: PETA*

“OHSU uses live female pigs as human stand-ins, cutting them open and mutilating them during shockingly crude and pointless OB/GYN training drills,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is calling on OHSU to adopt superior, non-animal technology, which would spare pigs’ lives and actually provide human-relevant training for physicians.”

Records obtained by PETA show that at least 64 OB/GYN residents at OHSU have cut into up to 48 live female pigs, dissected their organs, and performed other invasive surgeries on them in attempts to learn human medicine. All the animals were later killed.

Among other actions, PETA sent a letter to Dr. Amy Stenson, then-director of the university’s OB/GYN residency program, and wrote to Dr. Aaron Caughey, the school’s OB/GYN department chair, noting that dozens of similar programs in the U.S. use animal-free training methods, such as realistic human-patient simulators, advanced virtual reality systems, and interactive computer models. Last month, the group took out a full-page newspaper ad and released a video narrated by a medical doctor urging OHSU to end its use of live animals for OB/GYN physician residency training.

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 the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.