Primates, locked in crates and shipped like cargo, subjected to more than 37 hours of suffering.
Animal protection associations Cruelty Free International (United Kingdom) and One Voice (France) reiterate their call to Air France to stop the transportation of monkeys for research. This call comes after the publication of shocking information on the secret transportation of primates on Air France passenger flights totalling a distance of more than 16,000 kilometres.
According to information gathered by Cruelty Free International investigators, 120 long-tailed macaques were shipped by Air France from Mauritius to Chicago (USA) via Paris (France) on April 26, 2017. Monkeys packed into crates and transported from a local farm to the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport on the island, then placed on the AF 463 passenger flight bound for Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport (CDG).
The monkeys, having completed more than 9,600 kilometres in 11 hours and 30 minutes, were held in Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle for nine hours before setting out on a new voyage of more than 6,600 kilometres on flight AF 6730 to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) where they landed on April 27th - an additional flight time of 8 hours and 50 minutes. The monkeys were intended for Charles River Laboratories, a contract research business conducting preclinical (poisoning) toxicology tests on animals for pharmaceutical, chemical and agrochemical companies.
Sarah Kite, Cruelty Free International's Special Projects Director, says: "Air France's 463 tourists, who enjoyed maximum comfort and relaxed after a vacation on the paradise island of Mauritius, could not possibly have guessed that just below their feet were 120 non-human primates. These non-human primates who were forcibly loaded on board as "passengers", were torn from their families and trapped in tiny wooden crates and suffered in the dark of this noisy hold of the aircraft. At the end of this nightmare journey, these intelligent and sensitive animals were destined to spend the rest of their lives in metal cages thousands of miles from their native jungle and to be subjected to horrific and painful experiments."
Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice, is indignant: "Air France is the last passenger airline in Europe to continue this cruel transportation of primates for research that has become obsolete thanks to advances in science. This French company sends thousands of monkeys every year to suffer and die in laboratories all over the world. We call on its CEO to stop this practice today! "
The airline is a vital link between Mauritius and laboratories in Europe and the United States, one of the largest suppliers of monkeys in the world. In 2016 8,425 monkeys were exported from Mauritius to Europe, the United States and Canada. It is likely that Air France transported the majority, if not all, of the Mauritius monkeys to Paris where they were registered on another Air France flight to the United States or sent by road to French, British, Spanish and German laboratories.
Cruelty Free International and One Voice have worked tirelessly to end the transportation of primates. Our shock investigations revealed the cruelty and suffering inflicted on the animals in the laboratories and during their capture, rearing and transportation. Our campaign has received worldwide support and we have seen many international companies (formerly the leading carriers transporting monkeys to laboratories), including American Airlines, British Airways, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, South African Airways, Delta Airlines, Eva Air, Air Canada and China Airlines, who have given up this cruel trade by refusing to deliver new primates to the laboratories. Several other passenger airlines have also expressed their intention never to get involved in this sordid business.
Notes
In recent weeks, Cruelty Free International investigators have been informed of at least three transportations of monkeys from Mauritian farms via Air France flights. Cruelty Free International and One Voice are calling on the public to send an email to Air France's Executive Vice President of Operations and Air France's Frank Terner: frterner@airfrance.fr, demanding that Air France join the growing number of airlines that have made the decision to no longer participate in this barbarity. Check out which airlines that are willing to carry monkeys for research and those who choose not to: https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/airlines
