Unacceptable! 500 Monkeys Arrive at Dulles Airport in Filthy Conditions

Last month, a whistleblower revealed that a shipment of 500 endangered long-tailed macaques arrived at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, in filthy, stinking crates after being transported for over 26 hours in an improperly sanitized cargo hold.

The monkeys were flown from Vietnam on SkyTaxi, a Polish charter airline, in the same plane that recently brought another shipment of monkeys from Mauritius.

These unfortunate monkeys were imported by the infamous animal testing organization Charles River Laboratories, which is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspicion of illegally importing wild-caught monkeys from Cambodia.

The situation raises ethical concerns about the cruel treatment of these innocent, highly intelligent, endangered animals, as well as fears regarding the potential spread of dangerous pathogens.

Monkey breeding facilities in Mauritius are known for frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, which can easily spread between monkeys and humans.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the recent shipment of macaques on the grounds of animal cruelty and risk to human health.

PETA’s Senior Science Advisor, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, condemned the shipment, remarking, “Charles River Laboratories is scraping the bottom of the barrel by using SkyTaxi to fly monkeys from facilities in Vietnam and Mauritius where tuberculosis and other deadly pathogens continue to circulate.”

This is just the most recent of countless cases of abusive and risky behavior when it comes to breeding and transporting monkeys for lab testing.

The inability of this unethical research company to import 500 monkeys in a manner that is safe and humane proves that plans by Safer Human Medicine, a company led by a former executive of Charles River Laboratories, to import 30,000 monkeys into a small town in Georgia is truly misguided and immoral madness.

As the legal battle to defeat the Bainbridge monkey prison makes its way through the courts, Species Unite is continuing to do our part to keep reporting on this ongoing story. You can help us maintain the momentum by sharing our petition with your networks!