At the end of their nightmare journeys, these monkeys are destined to spend their lives in a metal cage thousands of miles away from their families and subjected to experiments and tests that will cause them to suffer unimaginably, with death at the end.
Macaque monkeys (Courtesy of Action for Primates)
Air France will soon join more than a dozen other renowned airlines
that no longer cruelly fly monkeys to labs worldwide for gruesome
and deadly experiments.
The airline, which has for decades shipped hundreds of monkeys each
year to labs in Europe and the United States, announced in June via
Twitter that it will stop shipping monkeys for experiments as soon
as it fulfills its existing contracts.
The post, originally written in French, has since been “liked”
hundreds of times and retweeted by dozens of people.
Action for Primates (AfP), one of the animal welfare organizations
that have long been campaigning for an end to the grueling flights
that send monkeys to cruel destinations, applauded the decision.
“At the end of their nightmare journeys, these monkeys are destined
to spend their lives in a metal cage thousands of miles away from
their families and subjected to experiments and tests that will
cause them to suffer unimaginably, with death at the end,” the
nonprofit said.
Earlier this year, concerned airline workers and members of the
public alerted AfP to five Air France flights that collectively
transported at least 579 nonhuman primates – most prevalently
long-tailed macaques – from Mauritius and Vietnam to laboratories in
the United States and Europe.
The monkeys endured grueling journeys of up to 20 hours of travel
time, spent in cramped travel crates in the cargo hold where they
also were subject to noise, inadequate ventilation, temperature
fluctuations, and delays — conditions common in any transatlantic
flight involving animals used in research, according to Action for
Primates.
AFP tracked the monkeys’ journeys to research contractors who used
the animals for toxicity testing –an inhumane protocol where
chemicals or drugs are injected into animals intravenously or via a
tube forced down their throats and into their stomachs, often in
high doses, to see the possible impact on human consumers.
Animals can suffer from vomiting, seizures, weight loss, internal
bleeding, organ failure and death as a result. Animals who survive
the brutal procedures are killed so scientists can dissect and
analyze their organs, AfP reported.
Other airlines that have stopped flights of animals destined for
experiments due to the cruelty of both the flights themselves and
the horrific outcomes for the animals include American Airlines,
British Airways, United Airlines, Eva Air, Air Canada, China
Airlines, and Kenya Airways.
“Action for Primates is grateful that Air France will now become
part of a growing list of passenger airlines that have ended their
involvement in the cruel international trade in non-human primates,”
the nonprofit said.
Other animal welfare groups that have kept pressure on Air France
over the years include Cruelty Free International, the European
Coalition to End Animal Experiments, and People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA).
AFP, along with One Voice and Stop Camarles, also is campaigning to
urge the remaining airlines that allow the cruel shipments to stop
them – as is Lady Freethinker.