Long Delayed OHSU Ethics Hearing Draws Whistleblowers to Testify Regarding Ill-treated Monkeys Just Before Holidays

Portland, Ore.—Oregon’s former USDA inspector, Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown, and former Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) primate technician, Matt Rossell, will team up to present more than two hours of comprehensive video footage of monkeys at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center to a sub-committee of the Oregon Opportunity Task Force this Thursday, December 21. The secretly shot video details violations of the Animal Welfare Act submitted in September 2000 to the USDA (copies of video available upon request). The footage, first delivered to this legislatively-formed task force in May 2004, is finally getting a look over by this sub-committee headed up by State Representative R. Thomas Butler, R-Ontario.

When: Thursday, December 21
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Video Presentation
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Public Testimony
Where: OHSU- Marquam Hill Campus
CDRC- Child Development and Rehabilitation Center, Room 3200
Printable map of OHSU campus – http://www.ohsu.edu/about/campusmap.pdf

“I hope this committee shows some holiday spirit and will take seriously its charge of reviewing whether the animals in OHSU’s labs are being treated in a humane and ethical manner,” says Matt Rossell, who now works as In Defense of Animals’ NW Outreach Coordinator. “This review has been a long time coming since I first delivered these videos to the committee 2 ½ years ago, and unfortunately, they have done little thus far to strengthen ethics for animals used in OHSU’s experiments.”

Dr. Johnson-Brown and Rossell first blew the whistle during an August 2000 press conference after both had quit in frustration over ill-treated monkeys in OHSU’s labs. Topping their current list of concerns is the rapid expansion of primate research at OHSU.

“OHSU’s current census of 4,200 monkeys shows a marked increase—over 40 percent—from 2000 when they had around 2,500 macaques,” according to Dr. Johnson-Brown. “They should be reducing their monkeys numbers in accordance with the Revitalization Act of 1993, a federal mandate to decrease the numbers of animals used in experiments wherever possible and replace with non-animal technologies.”