Stephanie Boston, right, and other members of the Portland Animal Defense League began blocking the road at 8 a.m. Monday, June 28, to get media attention and protest cruelty of primate experimentation.

Five animal rights activists were arrested Monday morning during a protest blocking the road to the Oregon Health and Science University’s National Primate Research Center in Beaverton.

Animal rights groups were protesting the center’s use of primates in medical research. The demonstration included between 30 and 50 activists from groups including the Portland Animal Defense League and national group Stop Animal Exploitation Now.

The barrier included several activists hooked together through large tubes. The tubes were placed in the road to the facility with activists lying several feet apart.

Michael Budkie, co-founder of SAEN, said the protesters had been at the facility for four hours prior to the arrests, starting at 8:30 a.m. The activists set up a barrier to prevent traffic to and from the facility, though a Hillsboro Police Report said that no traffic was disrupted and employees were able to get to work as usual.

“It was a very effective event,” Budkie said. “It brought a lot of activists together who feel very strongly about this issue.”

Budkie said that the animal rights groups will contact the primate center later this week to start negotiations that would hopefully end in the halting of research involving primate subjects, a practice he called “a waste of taxpayer money.”

“We wanted to make the public aware of the violations of federal law” happening at the facility, Budkie said.

According to the Hillsboro Police, the arrested activists were “laying in the street prone with plastic pipes extending their arms.” They were removed from the “lockboxes” by the fire department, according to Budkie. The five arrested were charged with obstructing traffic, a misdemeanor crime, according to Hillsboro Police.

Animal rights activists, including prominent national organization PETA, have criticized the Primate Research Center for more than a decade for using primates as test subjects, and accusations include animals’ deaths due to unapproved experiments.

SAEN says the facility has been cited seven times in the past year for violating the Animal Welfare Act. A June 15 U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report said the facility was in compliance with the Animal Welfare Act.

See Also:
Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR
Five protesters arrested at Oregon National Primate Research Center in Hillsboro - 28 Jun 2010
Police Arrest 5 At Primate Center Protest - 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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