The Oregon National Primate Research Center houses approximately 4000 monkeys and is a major supplier of rhesus macaques to other facilities throughout the nation.

ONPRC  is in the process of a massive expansion. 

In 1998, ONPRC merged with Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), creating an even larger monolith even less sensitive to public concern. But, this merger has brought some of OHSU's own research into better definition. For example, it is now possible to learn about their use of cats and rats in experiments in pain as well as their own use of primates.

1. AXTHELM, MICHAEL K. investigates endemic diseases in the ONPRC monkey colonies.

2. BETHEA, CYNTHIA L. (betheac@ohsu.edu) considers the effects of estrogen on hormone production in rhesus macaques and induces experimental infection of the amniotic chamber in chronically instrumented pregnant rhesus monkeys.

3. BRENNER, ROBERT M. investigates female reproductive system functioning in rhesus macaques and induces artificial menstrual cycles in ovarectomized  juvenile rhesus macaques.

4. BROGAN, REBECCA S. studies lactation in primates.

5. CAMERON, JUDY L. (cameronj@ohsu.edu ) monitors effects of fasting and re-feeding on testosterone production in male rhesus macaques and creates stress-induced suppression of  reproductive function in crab-eating macaques. (Meet Judy!)

6. CASEY, DANIEL E.  documents the side effects of anti-psychotic drugs in a group of 39 capuchin monkeys.

   • As of 2001 this study was not renewed. Some of the monkeys were euthenized and some sent to a zoo. One monkey died in transit.

7. CHAFFIN, CHARLES L. studies ovulation in rhesus macaques.

8. CONN, PAUL M. considers gonadotropin releasing hormone ( GnRH ) action in rats and rabbits.
    

9. GRAVETT, MICHAEL G.  induces birth prematurity in chronically instrumented pregnant rhesus macaques through experimental intrauterine infections. [Chronic instrumentation is the term used when monitoring devices are permanently surgically implanted. Typically, monkeys used in this manner are permanently tethered and housed in isolation.]

10. GROVE, KEVIN L. (grovek@ohsu.edu): induces seizures in lactating rats.

11. HERMSMEYER, R. KENT (herms@ohsu.edu  or  rkh@compuserve.com) examines the effects of hormones on intentionally damaged coronary arteries in rhesus macaques.

12. HESS, DAVID L. studies the effects of lead on testicular function in rabbits.

13. KODAMA, TOSHIAKI infects rhesus macaques with SIV.

14. LENTZ, STEVE documents the effects of vitamins on experimentally impaired vascular function in crab-eating macaques.

15. MACHIDA, CURTIS A.  studies gene expression in rat and macaque heart tissue in response to various hormones and infects rhesus macaques with SIV.

16. MATRISIAN, LYNN M. investigates hormonal manipulation of induced menses in spayed female rhesus macaques.

17. MENG, LI. is cloning rhesus macaques.

18. NEURINGER, MARTHA (neuringe@ohsu.edu) deprives infant rhesus macaques of key nutrients and studies the results such as chronic diarrhea and neural impairment.

19. NOVY, MILES J. ( haluskag@ohsu.edu) is engaged in physiological studies of unanesthetized  chronically catheterized maternal-fetal preparations (pregnant baboons and rhesus macaques) in mobile tether assemblies.

20. OJEDA, SERGIO R. (ojedas@ohsu.edu) studies the effects of chronic alcohol ingestion in infant rhesus macaques. (Meet Sergio!)

21. RONNEKLEIV,  OLINE  K. (ronnekle@ohsu.edu) investigates the results of maternal cocaine addiction on neurological development in infant rhesus macaques.  This is one example of the federal government's "war on drugs" which consumes funds which could have been spent on education and intervention. 

22. SIMERLY, RICHARD B.  studies reproductive hormones in rats.

23. SMITH, GARY D. compares human and rhesus sperm motility.

24. SMITH, M. SUSAN (ONPRC  Director) (smithsu@ohsu.edu) studies effects of infant suckling on neurological activity in rats.

25. SPIES, HAROLD G. (spiesh@ohsu.edu) monitors hormone production in naturally ovulating or  ovariectomized  rhesus macaques.

26. SPINDEL, ELIOT R. studies gene chemistry in animal tissues. [ Some of Eliot Spindel's research ]

27. STOUFFER, RICHARD L. studies ovarian hormones in rhesus macaques. 

28. STUEBER, NANCY is educating school children and the public about the dangers of substance abuse inferred from monkey experimentation. This is simple propaganda intended to justify the use of non-humans. The fact that it is aimed at children is indicative of the effort the primate researchers employ to maintain their industry.

29. URBANSKI,  HENRYK  F.  studies sex hormones in female rhesus macaques.

30. WOLF, DON P. is cloning rhesus macaques. This "breakthrough" technology aims to create identical monkeys for scientists to use in their experiments.

31. WONG, SCOTT W. infects rhesus macaques with herpes and  SIV; the use of SIV  infected monkeys has become a common "tool" for researchers at the NIH Regional Primate Research Centers.

32. VIJAYARAGHAVAN, S. explores sperm motility in cows, humans, and monkeys.

33. ZELINSKI - WOOTEN, MARY B.  studies hormone induced contraception in rhesus macaques.

Having the dubious distinction of being the first NIH Regional Primate Research Center, ONPRC had great hope attached to its creation. Featured in The Primates, a volume from the Time/Life Nature Series published in the mid 1960s, ONPRC was supposed to become a leader in the development of monkey to human organ transplant technologies. But, like later promises made by those who desire unbridled access to monkeys to experiment on, this turned out to be far from reality.

Today, ONPRC, like the other primate research laboratories around nation, seeks to justify their continuing torture of monkeys by making grandiose assertions about their accomplishments all the while swearing that the animals they mutilate and kill are humanely cared for.

ONPRC is a microcosm of the larger problem of publicly-funded primate torture. It seems that the facility administrators are numb to the torment of the more than two thousand monkeys trapped at the Center. In fact, they seemed surprised when a federal inspector cited them for Animal Welfare Act violations when it was discovered that monkeys in the breeding corrals were obliged to wade through feces and urine filled puddles to reach their food. The ONPRC staff simply could not see the problem.

But how could they? Being able to tell that an animal is in discomfort means that you must be able to put yourself in its place to some degree. And doing this would lead to insanity for the people who torture monkeys on an assembly line scale. Self-protection requires them to ignore the discomfort, the squirms, the fear in the eyes of their experimental subjects and pretend that the monkeys' suffering is less refined than their own would be in any similar situation. And so, no one noticed the pools of slime-covered urine and feces the monkeys were having to walk through.

The Oregon National Primate Research Center is engaged in experiments that defy belief. To study nutrition in infants they do not give them vitamins or fruit to determine how to make them more healthy; no, they give them special diets with certain nutrients found in monkey breast milk removed. Then they record the amount of diarrhea, the susceptibility to disease, the failure of the brain to develop normally. And they do this over and over and over.

To investigate the effects of stress they surgically implant heart monitors in babies' chests. Then they frighten them and record the blips on the monitors.

If the ONPRC was somehow unique, if it was an anomaly, it would be an embarrassment to Oregon and a sign of a unique immorality in the state, but it is not. ONPRC is simply a symptom of a system controlled by those who stand to gain by its continuance.

Rhesus monkeys are much more social and emotional than humans. The Animal Welfare Act (a dismally weak piece of legislation) requires that monkeys be caged in a way that allows them to see members of their own species. Even with this small kindness, many monkeys housed alone will develop self-mutilating behaviors due to the inability to touch and be touched by another monkey.

During a recent federal inspection it was discovered that two female monkeys were being caged where they could not see another monkey. These two monkeys had previously each been caged with another monkey, but the cage-mates had been taken for use in an experiment. The inspector noted the violation and then gave the Center nearly three months to correct the situation. A federally funded facility with a [at that time] $14,000,000 budget could easily have found a way to alleviate these two monkeys' loneliness right away had it have wanted to . . . but that would meant acknowledging the animals as beings deserving concern.

One of the shields facilities such as the ONPRC use to hide behind is a stilted scientific jargon. The average person is confronted with terms and phrases that can lead them to feel that the work being performed at these Centers is simply too complex and rarified to understand. But often, just the opposite is the case.

Dr. Judy Cameron, Ph.D.; Associate Scientist, Oregon National Primate Research Center; Associate Professor, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, became embroiled in a dispute with a facility oversight committee. Cameron had surgically implanted monitoring equipment into the chests of young rhesus monkeys and wanted to frighten them to see what would happen. She wrote in her proposal that she wanted to use a remote-controlled model helicopter to buzz the pens the monkeys were being kept in. The committee thought that the monkeys might "stampede" and some babies might get crushed. They suggested that if someone entered the enclosure while wearing a lab coat and carrying a net that the monkeys would be frightened enough.

But Dr. Cameron thought that something flying around overhead would be a better choice. As a compromise, the committee allowed her to use a remote-controlled model glider painted to look like a hawk. Now that's highfalutin science.

ONPRC is a crime against nature.

For the record, claiming that scientists such as Neuringer or Cameron and staff at a facility such as ONPRC are callous insensitive sadists should be cause for legal action for slander. Unless, of course, it's true, and the actors are leary about parading their behavior in an open court room. [ Some of Judy Cameron's research ]

Dr. Novy 's research goal is the prevention of premature labor.

Dr. Novy’s recent investigations are entitled:

• ENDOCRINE AND VASCULAR RELATIONSHIPS IN PARTURITION

• ENDOMETRIUM EXTERIOR MEMBRANE INFECTION & PRETERM  LABOR RHESUS MACAQUES MODEL

• ANDROSTENEDIONE  INCREASES  ESTRADIOL  LEVELS BUT NOT  PRETERM  LABOR

• AMNIOTIC FLUID  PROLACTIN  DECREASED BY IL 1 IN PROSTAGLANDIN PRESENCE OR ABSENCE

• FETAL  FIBRONECTIN  INCREASE BEFORE LABOR NOT W/  CYTOKINE  OR UTERINE CONTRACTION

Dr.  Novy  describes his experiments in clear terms:

• He uses, ". . .  unanesthetized  chronically catheterized maternal-fetal preparations in mobile tether assemblies . . ."

• " . . . we utilized chronically instrumented rhesus monkeys with timed gestations in which infection was established by inoculation of . . . Group B streptococcus . . ."

• "Two animals were instrumented with maternal and fetal vascular and amniotic fluid catheters on day 122.  Three animals were not instrumented and blood was drawn by  venipuncture .  One instrumented animal delivered  preterm (day 145) 60 hours after the beginning of treatment."

• "Pregnant animals were instrumented with  intraamniotic  catheters,  electromyographic  electrodes and maternal and fetal vascular catheters."

In 1972 Miles  Novy  received nearly $100,000 to study the physiology of pregnancy and premature delivery. For at least the past thirty four years Dr.  Novy  has continually received public funds to turn monkeys and their fetuses into living laboratories.  He is currently a senior scientist at the Division of Reproductive Sciences,  ONPRC .

For more information:

See the CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects).

And the  ONPRC  webpage  at:   http://www.ohsu.edu/ONPRC/