the international primate trade: monkey business goes global · native monkeys western labs rhesus...
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AR2010:
“The Tragedy of Trade”
The International Primate Trade: Monkey Business Goes Global
Dr. Shirley McGreal
International Primate Protection League
www.ippl.org
“No Place on Earth” Untouched
by the Primate Trade Nepalese mountaineer
Jyamchang Bhote on Mt.
Everest with IPPL’s
protest banner, May 2009
IPPL campaigns with
WWG (Nepal) to ban
native rhesus exports
Nepal’s monkeys highlight
sustainability and
globalization issues
“Plain” Monkeys Under Hidden
Threat from “Legal” Export Primates imported into
U.S. in 2009 (USFWS):
• Crab-eating macaque
monkeys: 19,979 (90%)
• Rhesus macaque
monkeys: 1,596
• Other monkeys/
prosimians: 515
• Apes: 8
Can this continue, even
for “common” monkeys?
International primate trade most affected by CITES
CITES: leading international treaty governing trade in endangered species (1975)
Most nations (175 out of 195) are signatories
Appendix II and I listings • II: trade permitted if animals
legally removed from the wild and “no detriment” to species
• I: commercial trade banned (import and export permits needed for transport)
Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species
Primates and Appendices
All primates are on either Appendix I or II
Appendix I: Includes all apes and all lemurs (as well as many monkeys)
Appendix II (less protected) monkey species like macaques traded more easily
• Traded with only export permits
• Export permits easily falsified
• Wild-caught animals listed as captive-born to evade regulations
Multinational corporations/ research facilities exploit these loopholes
Example 1: Monkey Laundering Cambodia ► China ► The West
Cambodia: Wild-caught macaques transferred to breeding/collecting centers • Wild-caught and captive-born
monkeys shipped to China
• Suspect “captive born” documents often used
China: Monkeys become menu items/export items
The West: Monkeys in high demand for biowarfare experiments Cambodian monkeys
awaiting export
Example 2: Chinese Numbers Wild-caught ► “Captive-bred”
China has no native crab-
eating macaques
China claims: exported only
“12,244” of these “captive-
bred” monkeys 2004-2007
(CITES workshop, Nov. 2008)
But U.S. alone imported
13,952 from China in 2007
(USFWS)
Example 3: Outsourced to Malaysia
Research/breeding sites ► Developing nations
EU debates on phasing
out primate research
Pharmaceutical
companies increasingly
seeking to outsource
research and testing
Issues of welfare, legal
recourse, etc.
IPPL (UK) and BUAV protest at Malaysian High Commission
Example 4: Nepal “Monkey Farms” Native monkeys ► Western labs
Rhesus export ban from
India/etc. since 1970s,
results in alleged
“shortage” of monkeys
Native rhesus monkeys
sought for 2 U.S. labs
Nepal cancels export
plans in August 2009,
200+ monkeys released
into national park! Former monkey holding and
breeding center in Lele, Nepal
Contact the
International Primate Protection League
IPPL
P.O. Box 766
Summerville, SC 29484
Phone: 843-871-2280
Fax: 843-871-7988
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.ippl.org