PETA Supporters to Seek End to OB/GYN Training on Live Animals at OHSU Board Meeting

For Immediate Release:
June 21, 2023

Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382

PETA supporters wearing pig masks will squeal outside Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) board of directors meeting on Friday, urging the school to end its invasive medical training procedures on live pigs in its OB/GYN physician residency training program.

When:    Friday, June 23, 2 p.m.

Where:    Robertson Life Sciences Building, Room 3A001 on the third floor, 2730 S.W. Moody Ave., Portland

“OHSU has the shameful distinction of being one of the last remaining institutions to rely on slicing up pigs instead of embracing superior modern technology,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is calling on the university to get out of the dark ages and stop tormenting vulnerable animals.”

In April, PETA supporters protested outside an OHSU board of directors meeting, urging an end to the pig-mutilation drills. PETA also sent a letter to Dr. Amy Stenson, director of the university’s OB/GYN residency program, noting that the majority 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.

At least 64 OB/GYN residents 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 pigs were later killed.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.