Animal rights organization PETA has asked the federal government to put an end to experiments on animals at Oregon Health & Science University.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has been a frequent critic of the OHSU's laboratory tests on animals, especially monkeys. The university and research center has also drawn anger from other animal rights groups in the past, with calls to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other bodies to crack down and fine OHSU.

This time, PETA wrote a letter to the National Institutes of Health, a cluster of medical research centers funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The letter signed by PETA Vice President Alka Chandna says that OHSU's employees have been careless or incompetent in their handling of animals.

OHSU received more than $218 million from the National Institutes of Health in 2017. If the university lost that funding, it could hurt its ability to do laboratory testing.

The university defended its use of animal testing in a statement, saying that OHSU already resolved the problems with the PVC pipe and previous incidents. The statement also says that OHSU self-reports problems to federal regulators and that the inspection reports references by PETA are publicly available for anyone with concerns.

The Oregon National Primate Center in Hillsboro is one of seven of its kind funded by the National Institutes of Health. It sits on 200 acres and holds 5,000 primates, including rhesus, baboons and several types of macaques. The animals are used for infectious disease research, to develop vaccines and stem cell innovation. OHSU also uses guinea pigs, mice and other animals for research.

The letter comes after an early August inspection by the agriculture department found that a monkey fell behind some PVC pipes that served as a perch and eventually died in part because of the entrapment.

"OHSU's failure to comply with minimal animal welfare standards further exacerbates the cruelty inherent in the institution's use of funds to harm monkeys in studies that are highly unlikely to benefit humans," Chandna said in the letter.

The letter cites incidents documented by federal inspectors that go back to early 2014. Each detail various types of primates hurt by lab experiments. In some instances, federal inspectors have opened formal investigations into deaths and injuries.

OHSU has also been fined by a federal agency for primate deaths and escape.

"OHSU strongly supports what data confirm -- knowledge gained through biomedical research in relevant animal models is essential to developing new ways to identify, prevent, treat or eradicate debilitating diseases like HIV and Zika, and to improve the health of humans and animals," said spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley. "OHSU's views on this topic reflect those of other academic health centers, universities, physicians and scientists throughout the world."

PETA plans to hold a demonstration outside OHSU's southwest Portland location Wednesday.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger