Protesting ‘Monkeys’ to Be Caged Outside French Embassy

PETA Members Will Demand End to Air France’s Bloody Business: Shipping Primates to Laboratories

For Immediate Release:
July 16, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

A group of PETA supporters wearing monkey masks will be locked in cages outside the French Embassy in Washington on Thursday. The protesters will demand that Air France join every other major airline in the world and stop flying thousands of terrified monkeys every year to laboratories, where they’re caged, cut into, poisoned, crippled, deprived of food and water, infected with deadly diseases, and killed.

When:   Thursday, July 17, noon

Where:  The Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd. N.W. (near the intersection with 39^th St. N.W.), Washington

“PETA’s protesters will show the Embassy of France what goes on in Air France’s cargo holds: Sensitive, intelligent monkeys are caged and shipped to laboratories, where they suffer and die,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Justin Goodman. “Air France has an ethical obligation to ground this cruel cargo for good.”

Air France is the only major airline in the world that still ships primates to laboratories. Some of these animals 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 nearly 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.

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