We call on UK to take global lead in ending the cruel import and export of animals for research
Today we join with 15 other leading animal protection and wildlife conservation groups calling on the UK to promote an end to the global wildlife trade at November’s G20 meeting of leaders of the world’s major economies and introduce a new law banning the import and export of wild animals in the UK - including for use in research.
The global wildlife trade is fuelled by demand for exotic pets, traditional medicine and the research and entertainment industries. Trade in non-human primates for research is a global industry responsible for great cruelty and suffering. Every year tens of thousands of primates are captured in the wild, kept in forced captivity in unnatural conditions on farms, separated from family and transported in cargo holds to their eventual fate in a research laboratory.
In recent years, there has been a move away from wild caught trade in primates to large-scale commercial breeding facilities in Asia, often involving long-tailed macaques in China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos where monkey farming is big business. Concerns have been raised about the largely unregulated trade that has led to indiscriminate and intensive trapping of wild primates to establish and maintain breeding and supply farms.
Kerry Postlewhite, Director of Public Affairs at Cruelty Free International, says: “We are pleased to be part of this coalition. The global wildlife trade raises many areas of concern –including the cruel export of monkeys for research purposes. We hope UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take a lead in ending the terrible suffering and cruelty that is being inflicted on animals forced to endure this experience for outdated and unreliable experiments.”
Although a UK ban on the import of wild-caught primates for research purposes took effect in 1997, this did not include the import of the offspring of wild-caught adults. The UK has therefore, over the years, perpetuated a trade that has centred on the cruel trapping of wild animals. In 2018, over 2,000 long-tailed macaques were imported into the UK for research purposes, and a total of 3,207 experiments were started on primates in the UK in 2018 (up by 8% from 2017).
Our field investigations in South East Asia revealed appalling suffering inflicted on primates during their capture in the wild, poor conditions at primate holding and breeding farms that breach international animal welfare guidelines, an unofficial and illegal trade in macaques, as well as breaches in CITES regulations.
Campaign to End Wildlife Trade is supported by 16 leading animal protection and wildlife conservation groups including Cruelty Free International, World Animal Protection, Compassion in World Farming, Four Paws UK, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting and Action for Primates.
Show your support for ending the cruel wildlife trade by signing the Change.org petition.