Tuesday 23 April 2019 | 4

We must save the primates

We must save the primates

Mis à jour le 21 May 2019

One Voice remains at the forefront of the fight against the despicable international trade of primates for research. In memory of Kéo and Sambo, these two baby monkeys encountered in Cambodia many years ago, we must constantly affirm our fight and our resistance to this market of violence and suffering.

Hr blog

It's been 10 years since One Voice began a strong campaign of resistance to the exponential growth of primate trafficking from Cambodia to the European market. Our involvement in this fight will soon pass a quarter century and our determination remains intact and assiduous. Our first victories are only the beginning for those to come.

Starting in Cambodia, our investigation denounces all international traffic

When in 2008, the centre of primatology Niederhausbergen, Alsace, imported monkeys from a breeding centre in Cambodia, Muriel Arnal, president of our association, sent investigators into this country to bring back images on the conditions of these captive animals. These traumatic videos bring us closer to the horror, the pain that emanates from them. Whatever our position on animal welfare, how can we not feel anger at so much suffering? How not to feel helpless in front of these mums who try to protect their little ones to hide them from the intrusive eye of the camera? How do you make them understand that we are here to testify, and help them? One Voice refuses to let this pass in silence, our association has highlighted this urgency with a new resistance campaign started back in 2009. We must again today highlight this ceaseless and vital struggle for our primate cousins.

At the beginning of this year, we learn that China has just cloned five monkeys from a macaque’s modified genes with sleep disorders - one is dead and the others are suffering from serious pathologies, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia - it is high time to give this fight a new impetus.

More than two decades of struggle, we must continue the fight

Taken from their mother's arms, captured in the wild, raised in cages or cloned, thousands of young primates live the worst of anxieties. It is essential that animal rights activists around the world awaken their sleeping consciences. We who, since the 90's, are taking action with our partner, the BUAV (British Union Against Vivisection), we must remember that tenacity can give results. In 1996, we legally rescued 36 crab-eating macaques from a laboratory. They were placed in the L'Arche Refuge. That same year, we blocked the project of the largest breeding centre of primates in Europe (Holtzheim in Alsace). In 2003 the campaign "Air France-Air suffering" began.

As in 2009, we must resume an emergency campaign for new resistance to the growing international trade in primates for research.

Despicable and shameful, because they resemble us

Every year in the world, more than 100,000 monkeys and apes are used for biomedical research. Primates are very intelligent animals, with complex social behaviours. They feel pain and suffering, just like humans. Researchers take advantage of these characteristics to conduct various experiments on them.

But their suffering begins well before arriving in the laboratories. In 1991, the BUAV survey revealed a very high mortality rate amongst monkeys caught in the wild (8 out of 10 primates die before reaching the laboratories). The investigators were able to highlight the cruelty exerted on the captured primates, held in narrow and overcrowded cages in detention centres, and in aircraft holds.

In order to remove all humanity from these transactions, the actors of this traffic hide the monkeys under the acronym PNH, Primates Non-Human. How can we gather more than 550 species under such a cold name? These primates are our cousins, our relatives, in their diversity and their richness.

We refuse the use of primates, as with all living things used in research

This information from China on the cloning of primates should push us to put forward our values and our ethics on the defence of animal rights.
We refuse any form of vivisection.
We refuse any beneficiation for anybody: traffickers, breeders, laboratories, by the use of primates or animals whatever they are, rodents, dogs or others, for commercial ends.
We refuse to condone the trivialization of this exploitation in the publication of writings that give good conscience to those who write and disseminate them.

One third of the primate species are in danger of extinction. For them, we take this reality into account and continue our fight without compromise.

Daniel Ellezam
Hr blog

In the subject

Animal testing: investigation from One Voice in Mauritius into long-tailed macaque breeding farms 'Monkeys Labs': from condoned mistreatment, proven trafficking, and health risks

Comments 4

I accept that publication of my comments is subject to the code of conduct.

Béa | Saturday 11 May 2019

Ces expériences sont innommables et doivent être interdites définitivement ! Rien ne peut justifier une telle barbarie envers nos frères...

trochu | Friday 26 April 2019

Comme je vous soutiens et suis très profondément à vos côtés dans ce combat si noble et urgent qu'est l'expérimentation animale ! En ayant pris connaissance de ce qu'ont fait les chinois à l'encontre de singes, je vous avoue en avoir pleuré et à en être plus que bouleversée et perturbée ce qui m'empêche d'être "heureuse et sereine" sachant le calvaire, l'enfer et l'horreur SCANDALEUX, IGNOBLES ET INACCEPTABLES que vivent les singes et les autres animaux. Je parlerais plus d'un manque flagrant de respect et considération pour la vie animale pour les animaux ETRES VIVANTS et non "objets, outils ou matériel de recherche" ! Sachant que l'union européenne est encore et toujours pour l'expérimentation animale je me demande comment faire et quoi faire afin que les consciences s'éveillent, pour que de telles monstruosités et barbaries immondes, exploitations ignobles d'animaux cessent à jamais. Comment pouvons-nous continuer de vivre paisiblement en ayant connaissance de tant d'horreurs et de souffrances au quotidien de tous ces animaux ? J'espère profondément que nous parviendrons à faire stopper de telles utilisations d'animaux qui, je le répète, sont DES ETRES VIVANTS comme nous et en rien "inférieurs" bien au contraire. Je vous suis très reconnaissante ONE VOICE et vous remercie infiniment pour toutes ces luttes et combats difficiles afin de libérer nos frères LES ANIMAUX.

mumu | Thursday 25 April 2019

Bravo one voice pour tout ce que vous faites, on aimerait être millionnaires pour vous aider encore plus. Ces petits singes si fragiles, si beaux, qui sont molestés, terrorisés, c'est la honte totale ! Ils voudraient de la gentillesse, et ne récoltent que douleur et mépris ! Bravo pour TOUTES vos actions !

So | Thursday 25 April 2019

Il est insupportable et inhumain de pratiquer des expériences qui font souffrir les animaux ; ces expériences devraient être interdites et remplacées par d'autres moyens efficaces sans animaux