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More than 26,000 primates were imported into the U.S. in 2006. iStock.com |
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Wild monkeys in distress as they are violently captured, forced into bags and later sold into the international biomedical research industry—these are the images captured on film as part of an undercover investigation into the wild primate trade in Cambodia.
The video footage can be viewed at the website of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), the animal protection organization that carried out the investigation.
A Global Industry
The capture and use of wild primates in biomedical research is legal in most countries. Long-tailed macaques, the species of monkey seen in the video footage, are indigenous to Cambodia.
These and other species of primates, such as rhesus macaques, pigtailed macaques, marmosets, tamarins, squirrel monkeys and owl monkeys, are captured in Cambodia, Indonesia, China and other countries and sold to research laboratories in the U.S. and Europe.
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In the wild, long-tailed macaques spend the majority of their time in trees. iStock.com |
The number of primates imported into the U.S. has steadily increased each year. More than 26,000 primates were imported into the US in 2006, 92 percent of whom were long-tailed macaques.
Languishing in Labs
An estimated 100,000 primates live in laboratories in the US, and approximately 70,000 are used in harmful experiments each year, including drug testing and biodefense, infectious disease, and neurological research.
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TAKE ACTION |
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1. Write to Cambodian officials. In your message, ask that an immediate ban be placed on the capture, breeding and export of long-tailed macaques destined for the biomedical research industry.
2. Contact the Prime Minister of Cambodia
Mailing Address:
The Honorable Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia
Office of the Council of Ministers
41, Russian Federation Blvd.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
3. Contact the Cambodian Embassy in the U.S. (Click here for contact details of Cambodian embassies in other countries.)
Mailing Address:
Mr. Meng Eang Nay Deputy Chief of Mission
Royal Embassy of Cambodia
4530 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011
Phone Number: (202)726-7742
Fax Number: (202)726-8381
E-mail address: political_office@embassyofcambodia.org
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Chimpanzees are also used in biomedical research in the U.S.—the only country to do so on a large scale. Chimpanzee research has been banned or severely restricted in a number of other countries.
Hope for Primates
Although not currently banned in the European Union, the use of wild-caught primates in research will be phased out in all 27 E.U. countries if a recent proposal by the European Commission is approved by European Parliament and the European Council of Ministers. The proposal would update and improve Directive 86/609/EEC, the EU's legislation governing animal experiments.
In 2005, The Humane Society of the United States jointly presented a resolution calling for an end to the use of primates in biomedical research and testing at the Fifth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences in Germany—a historic step toward convincing governments, scientists, industry, funders, regulators and others to find alternatives to the tens of thousands of primates used in research and testing annually.
