BUAV Primate Trade Investigation: Before They Get to the Labs

Images and captions in this post courtesy of BUAV.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) today released its report on its undercover investigation into the Cambodian primate trade that is supplying macaques to research facilities (including U.S. and UK facilities, of course). I wonder, did the macaque whose life ended so horrifically earlier this year suffer in these same ways before ultimately ending up in the research lab where she continued to suffer so tremendously?

From the main Web page for the investigation:

The BUAV has obtained shocking never-seen-before footage of the trapping of wild monkeys in Cambodia destined for factory farms supplying the international research industry.

Appallingly, the monkeys were even hunted inside a nature reserve in Cambodia — supposedly a place of safety. The hunters used catapults and beat the tree trunks with oars to scare the monkeys out of the trees and drive them into nets. Then screaming in terror, or rigid with fear, these highly intelligent creatures were grabbed by their tails, stuffed into bags and stored in the bottom of a boat before being sold to a dealer of a monkey farm. . . .

The film is further evidence of the appalling cruelty that continues to be inflicted on wild monkeys for the international research industry. It also unveils the exploitation of indigenous populations of macaques (this type of monkey) in Asia, the industrial style breeding of monkeys, and the poor conditions in which they are kept that often fail to meet international guidelines on animal welfare, and fail to meet the monkeys' complex psychological and behavioural needs.

From the briefing [PDF]:

The latest BUAV investigation into the horrors of the primate trade is an expose of the abject cruelty and suffering that tens of thousands of macaques are forced to endure in the trapping fields, and holding and breeding facilities in Cambodia, the latest country to embark on the factory farming of monkeys for the international research industry.

In this daring investigation, BUAV investigators infiltrated and filmed the trapping network, dealers and supply companies to expose the secrets that the research industry would prefer to keep hidden. What has emerged is a shocking and sickening picture of animal cruelty and suffering. Monkeys are complex, intelligent and social animals who live in large family groups. Yet, bewildered and terrified, these wild monkeys were brutally ripped from their family groups and native habitat to feed a massively expanding breeding industry as Cambodia’s monkey dealers tote their grim business to countries around the world, including the USA and Europe.

See the BUAV's main page for this investigation for details and video.