Charles River Laboratories’ Last-Minute Monkey Grab Prompts PETA Warning to Shareholders

For Immediate Release:
January 30, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Montreal –

PETA has alerted Charles River Laboratories’ top shareholders that the international animal test company plans to import a shipment of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia into Canada. This comes as the international body that decides trade policy on endangered species is set to vote on a proposed suspension of the worldwide trade in monkeys from Cambodia.

Charles River’s planned import is scheduled for February 3, the same day as the start of the week-long meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Two weeks ago, the CITES Secretariat recommended halting trade in endangered long-tailed macaques from Cambodia. The recommendation is widely expected to pass.

“The expected suspension will mean that Charles River likely can’t sell the monkeys, which would impact the company’s bottom line, and this should concern all shareholders,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor for Primate Issues Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “Thanks largely to companies like Charles River, the population of long-tailed macaques has been decimated, and PETA is grateful to the CITES Secretariat for acting to protect these animals.”

An injured, bleeding, and scared long-tailed macaque caught up in the international wildlife trade. This photo was obtained through a public records request by Stiching Animal Rights.

The Secretariat’s recommendationwas made after the U.S. CITES Management Authority presented evidence in November 2024 of wild-caught macaques being laundered as captive-bred, as well as documentation provided by PETA of questionable breeding paperwork from Cambodian monkey farms. Earlier this week, PETA and more than two dozen primate experts submitted two new formal listing petitions to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, seeking protections for long-tailed and southern pig-tailed macaques under the Endangered Species Act. The agency has 90 days to respond.

The February 3 scheduled shipment into Canada comes nearly two years after Charles River had five shipments of long-tailed macaques (1,269 individuals in total) from Cambodia denied clearance by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Those monkeys are still in legal limbo after the agency prohibited them from being experimented on. The shipment is scheduled onboard Skytaxi, the Poland-based airline that Canadian officials fined $7,500 over three shipments of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia for Charles River.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has maintained the endangered status of long-tailed and southern pig-tailed macaques despite facing pressure from animal experimentation lobbyists.

In nature, macaques live in large groups, with an intense focus on social relationships. Infant macaques are adored, and female macaques remain in their birth group for life. These family-oriented animals are captured from their natural homes in staggering numbers and funneled into the international wildlife trade before ending up in U.S. laboratories, where they are used in painful, deadly experiments that lack relevance to humans.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.