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The international trade in primates sees 32,000 wild non-human primates (NHPs) trapped and sold on the international market every year.[ citation needed ] They are sold mostly for use in animal testing [ citation needed ], but also for food, for exhibition in zoos and circuses, and for private use as companion animals [ citation needed ].
The United States imports around one third of all NHPs sold internationally, with the United Kingdom importing the second highest number. Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, France, and Taiwan also rank among the top importing countries[ citation needed ].
The NHPs are exported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Kenya, Thailand, Philippines, Mauritius, Amazonian regions across South America, and China, where they exist indigenously[ citation needed ]. Noveprim Group, Les Campêches Ltd, Biodia Co Ltd, Bioculture (Mauritius) Ltd, Bio Sphère and Prima Cyno Ltd export between 6,000 to 8,000 primates yearly.
They are caught by local villagers, farmers, and hunters who set traps with baited nets and or by laying bait in crates. Entire families may be caught in the nets, with any undesirable NHPs being killed and sold for food[ citation needed ].
Those who survive are taken in crates to holding centers, possibly without food or water. The centers are reportedly overcrowded and dirty; the primates may not be able to stand in the crates, and many die. Others are weeded out because they are ill, too thin, or too old, with females and babies being the most desirable. [1]
According to a 1992 investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, 75% of the NHPs may be killed at the holding centers. [2]
NHPs may be imported into the U.S. and sold for "scientific, educational, or exhibition purposes," and for use in breeding colonies. According to the AESOP Project, the majority of NHPs are imported to the U.S. to be used in laboratories.
23,465 non-human primates destined for laboratories or laboratory suppliers were imported into the U.S. in 2014 including macaques, grivets and capuchins. The majority of these animals were from China, Mauritius, Cambodia and Vietnam, respectively. Fortrea, Charles River Laboratories and SNBL USA are the largest U.S. importers of monkeys destined for laboratories. [3] Between 1995 and 1999, 1,580 wild baboons were imported into the United States. [4]
Airlines have been under "significant pressure" from PETA and other groups to end their transport of monkeys and other animals to laboratories. [5] According to PETA, over 110 airlines refuse to transport monkeys to laboratories, many after being the target of the animal welfare group's campaigns. [6]
As of 2015, Air France remains the last major airline to still transport nonhuman primates to laboratories. While Air France has defended the practice, saying the use of monkeys in research is needed, others including PETA, Jane Goodall, James Cromwell and Peter Gabriel have criticized the airline. [7]
Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians. Primates arose 85–55 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted for life in tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to the challenging environment among tree tops, including large brain sizes, binocular vision, color vision, vocalizations, shoulder girdles allowing a large degree of movement in the upper limbs, and opposable thumbs that enable better grasping and dexterity. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). There are 376–524 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the 2000s, 36 in the 2010s, and six in the 2020s.
Great ape personhood is a movement to extend personhood and some legal protections to the non-human members of the great ape family: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals, such as model organisms, in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This approach can be contrasted with field studies in which animals are observed in their natural environments or habitats. Experimental research with animals is usually conducted in universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to the industry. The focus of animal testing varies on a continuum from pure research, focusing on developing fundamental knowledge of an organism, to applied research, which may focus on answering some questions of great practical importance, such as finding a cure for a disease. Examples of applied research include testing disease treatments, breeding, defense research, and toxicology, including cosmetics testing. In education, animal testing is sometimes a component of biology or psychology courses.
The crab-eating macaque, also known as the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. As a synanthropic species, the crab-eating macaque thrives near human settlements and in secondary forest. Crab-eating macaques are plastic in the attributes and roles assigned to them by humans, ranging from cultural perceptions as being smart and adaptive, to being sacred animals, being regarded as vermin and pests, and becoming resources in modern biomedical research. They have been described as a species on the edge, living on the edge of forests, rivers, and seas, at the edge of human settlements, and perhaps on the edge of rapid extinction.
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a contract research organisation (CRO) organized in Maryland and headquartered in East Millstone, New Jersey. It was founded in 1951 in Cambridgeshire, England. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 employees, it was the largest non-clinical CRO in Europe and the third-largest non-clinical CRO in the world. In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Harlan Laboratories, GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo.
Cruelty Free International is a British animal rights and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal testing. It organises certification of cruelty-free products which are marked with the symbol of a leaping bunny.
Before humans went into space in the 1960s, several other animals were launched into space, including numerous other primates, so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of spaceflight. The United States launched flights containing primate passengers primarily between 1948 and 1961 with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985. France launched two monkey-carrying flights in 1967. The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996. Most primates were anesthetized before lift-off.
Fortrea Holdings Inc. is a contract research organization organized in Delaware and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina with operations in 90 countries. It customers are primarily in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries.
Shamrock Farm was the United Kingdom's only non-human primate importation and quarantine centre, located in Small Dole, near Henfield in West Sussex. The centre, owned by Bausch and Lomb and run by Charles River Laboratories, Inc. for Shamrock (GB) Ltd, provided animals to various laboratories and universities for use in animal testing. It was Europe's largest supplier of primates to laboratories, and held up to 350 monkeys at a time.
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, constitute an incomplete paraphyletic grouping; however, in the broader sense based on cladistics, apes (Hominoidea) are also included, making the terms monkeys and simians synonyms in regard to their scope.
The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) is a not-for-profit animal welfare organization founded in 1973 in Thailand by Shirley McGreal.
The Silver Spring monkeys were 17 wild-born macaque monkeys from the Philippines who were kept in the Institute for Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. From 1981 until 1991, they became what one writer called the most famous lab animals in history, as a result of a battle between animal researchers, animal advocates, politicians, and the courts over whether to use them in research or release them to a sanctuary. Within the scientific community, the monkeys became known for their use in experiments into neuroplasticity—the ability of the adult primate brain to reorganize itself.
Gillian Rose Langley is a British scientist and writer who specialises in alternatives to animal testing and animal rights. She was, from 1981 until 2009, the science director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, a medical research charity developing non-animal research techniques. She was an anti-vivisection member of the British government's Animal Procedures Committee for eight years, and has worked as a consultant on non-animal techniques for the European Commission, and for animal protection organizations in Europe and the United States. Between 2010 and 2016 she was a consultant for Humane Society International.
The Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) is an American nonprofit organization, 501(c)(3), located in Washington, DC. Established in 1981, the organization is dedicated to informing the news media, teachers, and other groups about the need for lab animals in medical and scientific research. The organization, together with its partner, the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), argues that promoting animal research leads to improved health for both humans and animals.
Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000 NHPs are used every year in the United States, and around 7,000 across the European Union. Most are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild.
Nafovanny in Vietnam is the largest captive-breeding primate facility in the world. It supplies crab-eating Macaques to animal testing laboratories.
Animal Defenders International (ADI), founded 1990, has offices in US, UK, Colombia, Peru and South Africa; it actuates education and public awareness campaigns to protect animals in captivity and wild animals and their environments. ADI 's campaigns focus on animals used in entertainment, sport, for clothing; illegal wildlife trade; and replacement of animals used in research and testing. ADI collaborates with governments on large-scale international rescues of wild animals following legislation to end animal circuses, illegal animal trafficking. ADI owns and operates the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, South Africa, home to nearly 40 ex-circus lions and tigers from Peru, Colombia and Guatemala.
Oregon Primate Rescue (OPR) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) animal welfare organization that runs a 28-acre (110,000 m2) sanctuary for non-human primates (NHPs) in Longview, Washington. Established in 1998, it takes care of NHPs who are orphaned, disabled, or who originate from private owners, laboratories, and government agencies. OPR educates the public on the difficulty of keeping NHPs as companion animals, and on the importance of preserving their natural habitats. The group's aim is to reduce the number of NHPs living in inappropriate conditions in the U.S. Polly Schultz is the founder and CEO.
The Anti-Vivisection Coalition (AVC) is a United Kingdom-based pressure group which campaigns against animal testing. The AVC are described as 'main driver' of the Stop Vivisection Initiative, a petition launched in November 2012 which attracted more than a million signatures. The Stop Vivisection Initiative called upon the European Union to ban animal testing. If the signatures are verified, "the initiative will be granted hearings at the European Commission and the European Parliament".
International Primate Day, September 1, is an annual educational observance event organized since 2005 largely by British-based Animal Defenders International (ADI) and supported annually by various primate-oriented advocacy organizations, speaks for all higher and lower primates, typically endorsing humane agendas where primates are at risk, as in research institutions or species endangerment in precarious environmental situations.
