What’s a Monkey Doing in First Class?

Check out this primate who took over a first-class seat as Air France unveiled its new luxury cabins:

So what’s with the “flying monkey”? This eye-catching seat stealer drew attention to the fact that Air France is the only major airline in the world that still ships primates to laboratories, where they’re caged, cut into, poisoned, crippled, deprived of food and water, infected with deadly diseases, and killed.

After being hustled out by security, our group stood vigil outside the New York City building where Air France was holding its expo. The police half-heartedly tried to shoo the group across the street or down the block, but the protesters stayed put. Everyone who left the building got an eyeful and a leaflet. People were appalled by Air France’s cruelty.

The next day, the protesters locked themselves in cages outside the expo in order to call on the airline to join every other major airline in the world and stop flying thousands of terrified monkeys every year to labs, where they will live in pain and misery.

The New York City protests come on the heels of similar actions held in London and France earlier in the week.

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

What You Can Do

Ask Air France to stop shipping monkeys to their deaths—immediately and permanently.