Monkeys Were Headed to Notorious South Carolina Laboratory With Extensive History of Cruelty to Animals and Violations of Federal Law
For
Immediate Release:
June
22, 2012
Contact:
Shakira
Croce 202-483-7382
Norfolk, Va. -- Following a May 2012 PETA complaint, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Air China for two violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act stemming from an incident in which a monkey en route to a laboratory escaped from his enclosure during a passenger flight from Beijing to New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport. Air China was cited not only for transporting the monkey in an unsecured enclosure but also for handling monkeys in a way that might cause them harm. The tread mark of a shoe was found on the damaged crate, indicating that someone may have kicked or stepped on it. These citations come on the heels of Air China's April 2012 citation after another laboratory-bound monkey sustained injuries after being transported from China to JFK in a dangerously sharp enclosure.
"Air China is just as responsible for these primates' suffering as the experimenters who cage, poison, and kill them," says PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo. "In an age when the vast majority of airlines refuse to transport primates to laboratories, it is unconscionable for Air China to continue to ship these sensitive social animals to their deaths."
The monkey was part of a shipment of 110 rhesus macaques who were crammed four to a crate and destined for South Carolina–based laboratory supplier and experimentation facility Alpha Genesis, which has been cited for 14 violations of the AWA in the last two years, including for socially isolating monkeys and confining them to tiny, barren cages.
PETA is renewing its call for Air China to join nearly every major domestic and international airline—including American, Delta, China Southern, Hainan, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, El Al, Air India, and dozens of others—in refusing to transport primates to laboratories, where they are caged, tormented in painful experiments, and then killed. Only a small handful of airlines—including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, United-Continental Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines—continue this practice.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.