Police Arrest 5 At Primate Center Protest

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Police Arrest 5 At Primate Center Protest

POSTED: 1:13 pm PDT June 28, 2010
UPDATED: 5:55 pm PDT June 28, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Five protesters were arrested Monday as animal rights activists demonstrated outside Oregon Health & Science University's National Primate Research Center. Hillsboro police Lt. Michael Rouches said 20 to 40 people protested animal testing at the primate center, located at Northwest Edgeway Drive and Heritage Parkway.

Michael Budkie, the director of the group Stop Animal Exploitation Now, said demonstrators "risked their freedom" to interfere with animal testing at the primate research center.

"This facility wastes over $50 million a year in useless primate experimentation," Budkie said. "Recently, they have been cited by USDA for taking the lives of several primates."

Jim Newman, a spokesman for OHSU, said the facility received a surprise inspection from the USDA last week and that it received a "glowing report."

"We do a lot as a center to try and explain what we do, to talk to the public," he said. "We talk to rights groups all the time. It's frustrating because we think we're open, but there are groups that come in from out of town hat think that closing our facility is the best way to show their frustration."

Five people who blocked Edgeway Drive by lying in the street with their arms linked by plastic pipes were taken into custody on a charge of obstructing traffic.

Police said OHSU employees were still able to get to work and service at the Primate Center was not disrupted.

The demonstration was not violent and no one was hurt.

Organizers with the Portland Animal Defense League said nearly 100 activists took part in the demonstration. Justin Kay, a representative of the PADL, said the primate research center should be "shut down entirely."

The five people who were arrested were booked into the Washington County Jail. Their names were not immediately available.

The protest came to an end at 12:45 p.m., according to OHSU representatives.

See Also:
Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR
Five protesters arrested at Oregon National Primate Research Center in Hillsboro - 28 Jun 2010
Five arrested in Oregon primate center protest - 28 Jun 2010
5 protesters arrested outside Ore. primate center - 28 Jun 2010
Protesters target primate center - 28 Jun 2010
Primate Center Protestors Handcuffed - 28 Jun 2010
Animal right protesters arrested outside OHSU primate center - 28 Jun 2010
28 Jun 2010 - Five arrested after activists block entrance to Oregon research laboratory; facility has killed primates, wasted tax money

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