4,000 monkeys saved as Colombian vivisector loses wild capture permit
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Animal Defenders International (ADI)
July 2012

The ruling found that Patarroyo’s research breached the country’s commitment to CITES and the Ministry of Environment was criticized for failing to exercise controls over the hunting and scientific study of primates.

Colombia’s Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca has revoked permits held by Manuel Elkin Patarroyo for the capture of thousands of wild owl monkeys for malaria experiments. The permits would have allowed Patarroyo to trap 4,000 wild monkeys until 2015, for experiments at the Institute of Immunology Foundation of Colombia (FIDIC).

ADI undercover investigators secured video footage of the laboratory’s monkey trapping operation along the Amazon, including trappers searching the forests by night for owl monkeys; the trees netted and the tiny monkeys, unable to escape, torn from their homes, pushed, terrified and screaming, into sacks. The team also filmed inside FIDIC where monkeys are kept in tiny bare, metal cages, a shocking contrast to their native forest homes.

The ruling found that Patarroyo’s research breached the country’s commitment to CITES and the Ministry of Environment was criticized for failing to exercise controls over the hunting and scientific study of primates. Anomolies in permissions granted to Patarroyo date back to 1984, including irregularities in permit procedures and breach of obligations and prohibitions of Colombia’s National Resources Code.

As a result of the Tribunal, to which ADI submitted evidence, disciplinary action against officials at the Ministry of Environment is now being initiated. FIDIC and the Corporation for Sustainable Development of Southern Amazonian (Corpoamazonia) were also sanctions.

We are delighted that the horrific suffering of thousands of monkeys and the potential devastation of wild populations has been prevented and hope that the next step will be to end these cruel and pointless experiments once and for all.

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