Airlines told no more monkey business
The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection has launched an international campaign on Change.org to stop airlines transporting primates destined for research.
'Every year, tens of thousands of monkeys are traded around the world for the research industry,' said Sarah Kite, director of special projects for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, in a statement. 'Airlines play a key role in this chain of suffering by shipping monkeys from breeding facilities in countries such as Vietnam, China, St Kitts and Mauritius to laboratories in the USA, Europe and Japan.”
The Cargo Cruelty campaign was started shortly after American Airlines joined the growing list of airlines that do not transport primates for the research industry. Air France, Air Canada and Vietnam Airlines are among a small number of airlines that continue to be involved in the primate trade.
According to the association, the monkeys are bred in captivity or taken from the wild in countries such as Mauritius, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Tanzania and Barbados. 'Breeding facilities are often overcrowded and plagued by animal abuse, while live-capture from the wild is stressful and dangerous to the animals who are taken from their family groups,' the association said.
'The animals are crowded into poorly ventilated crates, with little to no protection against temperature extremes, and loaded into the cargo area of commercial airplanes, where they can spend 15 hours or more on a transcontinental journey,' the British Union added. Many die en route.
