Catalogue of Cruelty
The trade in primates for research is a highly secretive business. Statistics for primate mortalities and illnesses either during transportation or subsequently are not always available. However, the following examples for the UK and USA provide an insight into the suffering and distress experienced by primates in transit. The BUAV believes the global picture to be far worse.
All 110 monkeys on board were dead on arrival in one of the worst examples of primate mortalities. In 1992 a Lufthansa flight from Indonesia to the USA caused the animals to die of shock and stress caused by freezing temperatures and lack of ventilation.
Three long-tailed macaques were found to be dead on arrival on a flight to the UK from the Philippines via Paris in 1998. The deaths probably occurred as a result of insufficient ventilation and that the monkeys were larger than usual and the containers they were transported in were not large enough.
Eleven monkeys were found to be dead on arrival.Out of a shipment of 40 wild caught pig tailed macaques transported from Indonesia to the USA by China Airlines in 1998.
Ten long-tailed macaques were found dead on arrival on board an Air France flight from Mauritius to the USA in 1999. The cause of death was given as shock, secondary to heat stroke.
