MANILA, Philippines - In the wake of a disturbing report by a whistleblower claiming that Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories USA (SNBL) — the third-largest importer of non-human primates to laboratories in the US — routinely abuses and neglects monkeys and torments them in painful and lethal experiments, PETA Asia is calling on the few airlines that still transport primates to laboratories like SNBL to end the shameful practice. PETA US has published photos and video footage of monkeys who suffered inside SNBL at PETA.org/SNBL.
Although nearly every major airline in the world has a policy against transporting primates slated for experimentation, some airlines — including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines — continue to transport tens of thousands of primates into the US and elsewhere, where they are caged, tormented in painful experiments, and then killed in laboratories.
“By transporting primates for experimentation, these airlines are complicit in the abuse taking place in laboratories such as SNBL, where monkeys are confined, restrained, poisoned, and left to suffer,” says PETA Asia’s vice president of international operations, Jason Baker. “These airlines need to let their customers know that they will no longer facilitate and profit from the misery of these intelligent, social animals.”
Most airlines — including Cathay Pacific, American, Delta, United, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Aer Lingus, and dozens of others — refuse to transport primates to laboratories.
Some of these primates are bred in captivity in cramped, squalid monkey farms, while others are torn from their families in the wild. The traumatized animals are crammed into small wooden crates and transported in the dark and terrifying cargo holds of planes, often on passenger flights just below unsuspecting customers.
For more information about animals used for experimentation, visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.