Check out today’s Willamette Week where James Pitkin in his article, “Simian Stimulus; OHSU’s recovery act request: more money for monkey experiments,” broke the news about the Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) plan to expand their primate labs–adding a 15 million dollar building with public money.

His opening sentence talks truth about how revolting this news is. “The stench of monkey shit is thick at the Oregon National Primate Research Center [ONPRC], scenting the air long before you hear the screeching of the center’s 4,200 nonhuman primates.”

In the article, OHSU claims that they are expanding to improve monkeys’ lives, and will actually be reducing their monkey census in the near future. However, in a conversation with IDA just last June, Richard Doughty, the Associate Director of Administration at ONPRC, when asked if this expansion was to increase the non-human primate census or just better house the current census, he responded, “both”. We also know that the last decade at ONPRC, they have increased their monkey population by more than 40%, at a time when all these labs should be reducing their animal experiments, and seeking grants involivng 21st century human-based research that holds vastly more promise to benefit people.

Stay tuned for more updates about how you can get involved to oppose this horrible primate lab expansion.