Victory! Kenya Airways Ends Monkey Lab Shipments Following PETA US Action

Update: 28 January 2022

After PETA US received reports that Kenya Airways flew to the US the monkeys involved in the truck crash there, which left 100 terrified animals possibly injured (details below) before they were carted off to their deaths in a lab, they rushed a letter to the airline’s CEO and chair of the board, urging them to end its involvement in this sordid trade.

The chair quickly responded with a commitment to ending this practice after the airline’s contract expires next month.

“[T]he current contract for the transport of the macaques (captive bred for export) will not be renewed when it expires at the end of February.”

—Michael Joseph, Chair, Kenya Airways

PETA US thanks Joseph and is relieved and happy that Kenya Airways is washing its hands of this bloody business, which not only torments animals but also risks exposing the public to dangerous pathogens.

Now please take action here by writing to Wamos Air and asking that it not send monkeys to laboratories or be involved in this cruel industry in any other way.

Update: January 24, 2022

PETA US has obtained eyewitness information that a woman at the scene of last week’s truck crash in the state of Pennsylvania, in which crates containing 100 monkeys who were being transported to a laboratory fell onto the road, got an eyeful of monkey saliva. Her eye is weepy and infected, and she has developed a cough. She’s now on both antiviral drugs and medication to protect against rabies.

When crates of monkeys are flown into the US, they’re unloaded by workers in full-body personal protective equipment because the risk of disease transmission is tremendous. But none of the people who waded through the terrified monkeys’ faeces and urine smeared across the highway wore so much as a face mask. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be scrambling to ensure that the numerous other people who were at the scene aren’t in danger.

While herpes B has not been found in monkeys from Mauritius, where these primates are originally from, studies show that no one has looked for it recently, either. And monkeys may harbour a number of unknown viruses.

The monkeys, some likely injured and all surely terrified, remained on the highway in subfreezing temperatures for hours without any protection or veterinary care as onlookers peered into the crates, some attempting to upright them. The US Department of Agriculture is now conducting an investigation in response to a complaint filed by PETA US.

Monkeys are imported into the US for experimentation with almost no oversight. They are brought by plane from Asia or Africa after they are forced to endure sometimes days-long trips during which they sit in their own urine and faeces. Then they’re trucked to undisclosed quarantine sites before being sent to laboratories across the US. If monkeys develop bloody diarrhoea or other symptoms after their quarantine period, PETA US has learned that no officials are informed and no one seems to care about this.

For the safety of animals and humans, PETA US is asking that the government stop pretending that experiments on monkeys are useful and stop importing them.

The PETA US complaint points to these possible violations:

• The monkeys’ crates did not appear to be secured to the truck.
• Faeces and urine from the monkeys were smeared across the highway as the crates were flung from the truck.
• The monkeys endured bitter cold for many hours, in violation of minimum temperature requirements.
• The monkeys, most if not all of whom were likely injured in the wreck, did not receive veterinary care.
• The monkeys who fled the scene, now reported to be three instead of four, were tracked and killed by local authorities, who have remained silent on the method used to kill them. The American Veterinary Medical Association accepts gunshot as a humane method of killing only when the gunshot causes immediate death. It is not at all clear that this is how the three escaped monkeys were killed.

This tragic incident is one more reason why PETA US is calling for the closure of primate research centres funded by the government. Take action here to help make that happen.