Justin Bieber: ‘Air France Sucks’

Pop Star Upset That Airline Gives Monkeys One-Way Ticket to Laboratories

For Immediate Release:
May 2, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After speaking with a protester at Los Angeles International Airport last week about how Air France is one of the largest traffickers of primates in the world, international singing sensation Justin Bieber voiced his concern for monkeys doomed to die in laboratories after being shipped all over the world by Air France and in true Bieber style told a protester, “Air France sucks.” The mega-star singer had stopped to chat at the protest, where he took a leaflet and then spoke to a protester for several minutes, before leaving with one of the group’s “Boycott Air France” T-shirts.

“Justin was horrified that while he can fly in and out of anywhere in the world, the primates Air France ships to deadly laboratories are on a one-way trip from which they’ll never return,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “We hope he’ll use his voice to continue to speak up for animals and spread the word to his fans.”

Almost every other major airline in the world—including American, Delta, United, Aer Lingus, Air China, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Lufthansa, and Qantas—has stopped transporting monkeys for use in animal testing.

Many of the monkeys Air France flies to laboratories have been torn away from their families in the wild. Crammed into tiny wooden crates and transported in the cargo holds of passenger flights, they endure a terrifying journey. After landing, they’re transported to facilities such as Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories and Covance, where they face horrors such as mutilation, poisoning, food deprivation, infection with painful diseases, and psychological torment.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.