PORTLAND, Ore. — A judge ordered Oregon Health & Science University to pay more than $430,000 to PETA for concealing videos that show animal experiments.
The animal rights organization sued OHSU for concealing footage from a public records request. PETA officials said the footage showed rodents being given large amounts of alcohol in tests of relationship infidelity.
Multnomah County Circuit Courts agreed with PETA that public records requests were not abided by.
In 2017, OHSU published a report, which PETA officials said shows prairie voles, a type of rodent, ingesting the equivalent to 15 bottles of wine.
PETA officials said soon after seeing the report, they submitted public records requests, but OHSU didn’t comply with it.
Instead, PETA lawyers argue the university said it couldn’t produce the records, because they were in the possession of the VA hospital.
PETA officials claimed when they contacted the VA, employees told them OHSU lead researchers had destroyed the videos.
"OHSU came back and sprung into action saying 'oh these videos no longer exist, we don't have that,'" PETA Director of Litigation Asher Smith said.
Smith said PETA officials didn’t learn that the records were still in existence until the trial was about to begin.
"This case really exposed OHSU's deep contempt for public accountability in a ton of ways," Smith said.
OHSU claimed the experiments were to study the effects of alcohol in male prairie voles. In a statement about the lawsuit, OHSU said the university takes seriously their obligation to comply with Oregon Public Record Laws.
In the statement, OHSU said the university had a long history of responding to public records requests in a timely manner.
But PETA officials said in this situation, that didn’t happen. Footage exposed by PETA showed male and female voles paired together. The males had alcohol in their system. Females were tethered to the wall.
"PETA eventually learned through litigation that the experimenters made a conscience decision that they didn't want these videos to fall into the wrong hands," Smith said.
In the same statement, OHSU said its research is monitored and inspected by the USDA. They claim the USDA visits campus at least once a year to inspect animals, facilities and food supply.