The ‘Cyno Breeders Association’ has responded to our investigation into monkey breeding farms with more propaganda
In a Mauritian newspaper, an advert for animal testing precedes One Voice’s investigation into macaque breeding farms.
In its publication on 3 December, Le Mauricien dedicated a whole page to our investigation into six long-tailed macaque breeding farms on the island. But three pages before our presentation of our work on the monkeys abused by employees, the newspaper management sold an advertisement space to the Cyno Breeders Association (CBA). Never hesitating to present animals as simple tools whose suffering does not matter, animal testing lobbyists have added another layer.
We are delighted that Mauritians are informed of our shocking findings at the breeding farms on the island. The journalists responsible for this article have not omitted anything, even printing four of our images obtained with a hidden camera on page 20. But what were we surprised to find on page 17, a few pages before, on an odd numbered page and therefore more likely to be read? Nothing less than an advert paid for by the main breeders on the island defending their activities, the very ones that we visited.
Animal suffering is always justified by lobbies
Macaques captured in the wild, enclosed in their dozens, abused, and, for the youngest ones, separated from their mothers… As soon as we show what gets hidden and concealed in animal testing, lobbies hurry to stun the public with huge influxes of propaganda.
In the advertorial published last Sunday, breeders presented monkeys as undesirable beings that threaten agricultural crops and overrun residential areas. The only use for these animals is to suffer until they die, without anyone being able to question this as long as it serves “global health” and the “Mauritian economy”. This is the height of cynicism; while our investigation leaves no doubt about the pain suffered by macaques captured in the country, members of the CBA dare to state that they “guarantee the highest standards of welfare”.
The industry is quaking in its boots… with good reason
If we in no way question the ethics of journalists, how is it possible not to find the deliberate choices made by the management of the Mauricien, who inevitably shape readers’ opinions, regrettable, even though citizens are increasingly opposed to animal experimentation. According to our One Voice/Ipsos survey from April 2023, no less than 74% of French people are against it and 81% think that tests on primates should be banned in France. Yet the majority of them come from Mauritius…
Along with us, say no to the use of long-tailed macaques in laboratories by signing our petition.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice