Programs & Campaigns
Action Alert!
 Help stop the import of primates from Cambodia into the U.S.
A recent investigation carried out in Cambodia by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV, http://www.buav.org/) has revealed severe cruelty and suffering during capture, handling, and trade of primates destined for the research industry. The investigation focused on the long-tailed macaque, a protected species listed in Appendix II of CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species).
The Cambodian government is allowing what appears to be a largely unregulated and rapidly expanding international trade in macaques, resulting in indiscriminate and widespread trapping. The investigation showed that despite the establishment of captive breeding programs, monkeys are being taken from the wild in large numbers to replenish the breeding populations.
The U.S. is one of the largest importers of monkeys for research from Cambodia. In addition to the profound humane and ethical considerations regarding their use in research, the U.S. government needs to take seriously the species' protected status and the effect that this cruel and prolific trade is having on them.
Our responsibility
"Until we stop importing monkeys for U.S. research, our government is guilty of supporting what would amount to civil rights violations if our genetic cousins were human. The U.S. scientific community must end its self-serving interest which creates a moral blind spot in what we allow other countries to do with and to their indigenous wildlife. NEAVS (www.neavs.org) joins BUAV's efforts with nothing short of full commitment to this important campaign." - Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D., NEAVS president
Act now!
1. Write to U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. CITES authority, and ask them to stop the importation of Cambodian macaques into the U.S.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Division of CITES Management Authority
4401 N. Fairfax Drive
Room 212
Arlington, VA 22203-3247
USA
email: managementauthority@fws.gov
2. Write to the Cambodian Ambassador to the U.S. and ask him to urge his government to place an immediate ban on the capture, breeding, and export of long-tailed macaques destined for the research industry.
His Excellency Mr. EK Sereywath
Ambassador
Royal Embassy of Cambodia
4530 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011
Watch the undercover footage
visit: http://www.buav.org/e_projecty.php
"Appallingly, the monkeys were even hunted inside a nature reserve in Cambodia - supposedly a place of safety. The hunters used catapults and beat the tree trunks with oars to scare the monkeys out of the trees and drive them into nets. Then screaming in terror, or rigid with fear, these highly intelligent creatures were grabbed by their tails, stuffed into bags and stored in the bottom of a boat before being sold to a dealer of a monkey farm." - BUAV
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