Please Help to Stop Airlines Transporting Primates to Laboratories

BACKGROUND

Every year, tens of thousands of nonhuman primates are transported from countries such as China, Mauritius, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia to the U.S. to be imprisoned in laboratories and tormented in experiments. Some are bred in captivity on cramped, squalid monkey factory farms, while others are stolen from their families in the wild.

The traumatized monkeys are crammed into small wooden crates and transported in the backs of trucks and the dark and terrifying cargo holds of planes, often on passenger flights just below unsuspecting customers.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nearly 23,000 nonhuman primates were brought into the U.S. in 2010—nearly all of them destined for laboratories. Nearly 3,000 monkeys were imported by animal testing conglomerate Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL), where recent photos and video footage leaked by a whistleblower show sick, distraught monkeys suffering horribly from tests in which they were injected with experimental chemicals.

Almost every major airline in the world—including Delta Air Lines, Qantas, American Airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific, and dozens of others—refuses to take any part in this violent industry and prohibits the transportation of primates to laboratories. However, an increasingly small group of airlines—including Air China, Air France, China Eastern Airlines, United Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines—continues to profit from animals’ misery by transporting monkeys destined for U.S. laboratories.

Please be a voice for the monkeys who are suffering in the primate trade. Take a minute of your time now to urge airlines that still transport monkeys to U.S. laboratories to join their peers and adopt a formal policy against the transportation of nonhuman primates for use in experiments.


PETITION

Please click and sign HERE


WHOM TO CONTACT

Click HERE for United’s online webform


SUBJECT

Stop Transporting Primates to Laboratories


SAMPLE LETTER, COURTESY PETA

Dear Officials,

I was dismayed to learn that your airline continues to facilitate cruelty to animals by transporting primates destined for laboratories. These highly social, intelligent beings are routinely mutilated, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilized in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, and psychologically tormented.

Additionally, primates suffer from the long and grueling transport in the cargo holds of planes and in the backs of trucks. For these reasons, nearly every major airline including Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and Aer Lingus refuses to transport primates for use in experiments. It is shameful that your airline lags behind and continues to support this cruel practice.

Please join leading airline companies and adopt a formal policy prohibiting the transport of primates destined for laboratories to ensure that your company plays no role in the suffering of these animals.

NAME

primates

our trip is long,
and filled with
apprehension.
we did nothing
wrong,
why this detention.
and when we arrive
in your foreign land,
we are subjected to
torments, we
do not understand.
your species, human
is supposed to be
smart,
but if you were,
in this cruelty
you would never
take part.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson