PETA Takes Air France Protest to the Boardroom

Campaign to Stop Airline From Shipping Monkeys to Laboratories Goes Corporate

For Immediate Release:
June 24, 2014

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA’s efforts to convince Air France to stop transporting thousands of monkeys to their deaths in laboratories have included public demonstrations, online campaigning, celebrity protests, and more.

Now, the group is headed to the airline’s boardroom.

PETA has just purchased stock in Air France in order to be able to attend its annual meetings and, as a shareholder, officially call on the company to join every other major airline in the world and stop flying thousands of terrified monkeys to laboratories, where they’re imprisoned, cut into, poisoned, crippled, deprived of food and water, infected with deadly diseases, and killed.

“Having the shameful distinction of being the only major airline that ships monkeys to a life of pain and misery in laboratories is bad for business,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Justin Goodman. “By buying Air France stock, PETA will be able to confront shareholders and executives about this cruel trade—and push them to ground it for good.”

Some primates shipped to laboratories come from squalid monkey farms, while others are torn away from their homes and families in the wild. The primates are crammed into small wooden crates and transported inside dark cargo holds for as long as 30 hours before they reach their final—and deadly—destination. Air France shipped at least 5,500 monkeys to U.S. laboratories in 2013.

James Cromwell, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Peter Gabriel have all spoken out against Air France’s cruelty to monkeys, and PETA and its overseas affiliates have held demonstrations outside Air France offices and airport terminals in Los Angeles, Dubai, and other cities around the world.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/AirFrance.