Congressional Hearing: Experimenters Are Using Wild-Caught Monkeys Despite Biosecurity and Pandemic Risks

For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

At a hearing convened by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations this morning, a witness representing a monkey-importation company testified that U.S. experimenters are knowingly using monkeys captured from the wild—a practice known to compromise research results—among other stunning revelations.

Paul Pelletier represented Worldwide Primates, one of two unindicted coconspirators in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment in November 2022 of eight Cambodian nationals, including government officials, on charges related to falsifying paperwork to pass off wild-caught macaques as captive-bred. Only one Cambodian official, Masphal Kry, has been tried so far. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), which conducted the investigation of the monkey-smuggling ring, has since denied entry to long-tailed macaques from Cambodia into the U.S., angering importers—many of whom are also under federal investigation—who can’t prove that the monkeys were actually bred on farms.

While Pelletier and other witnesses were critical of the FWS investigation, agency Director Martha Williams testified that the investigation is ongoing and that it was undertaken at the behest of the Trump administration. 

“The operation was approved in May 2018 in support of President [Donald] Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 13773–Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking,” Williams stated. “This EO directed federal agencies to strengthen enforcement of federal law to thwart transnational criminal organizations that presented a threat to public safety and national security through the ‘illegal smuggling and trafficking of humans, drugs, or other substances, wildlife, and weapons.’”

Emory University researcher Tom Gillespie, who has studied emerging zoonotic disease risk for two decades, testified that “macaques are excellent reservoirs for pathogens that can infect us and potentially lead to disease outbreaks” and that “macaques show the highest average volume of potential zoonotic diseases of all wildlife traded.” Because these pathogens can alter the animals’ immune systems, research results are likely to be compromised.

Documents obtained by PETA revealed that since 2021, at least six cases of Burkholderia pseudomallei—a bacteria so deadly that it’s classified as a bioterrorism agent—were found in macaques imported from Cambodia. Four of the monkeys were released from quarantine while still infected. B. pseudomallei, which causes deadly melioidosis, can be shed in monkey feces, urine, saliva, and blood, contaminating the environment and persisting for years.

“Monkey importers are motivated by cash, and they’ll apparently lie to get it no matter what the costs to scientific integrity, public health, or primate conservation,” says PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, who was at the hearing. “Experiments on monkeys have failed to lead to cures for humans, and importing long-tailed macaques will invite the next pandemic.”

Pelletier further testified that long-tailed macaques aren’t endangered, even though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added them to its Red List of Threatened Species, placing them among the most endangered species on the planet. The IUCN cited the animal experimentation industry as one of the chief reasons for the depletion of long-tailed macaques worldwide. Nearly 17 months ago, primate scientists from around the world, including Dr. Jane Goodall, petitioned the FWS to begin the process of adding long-tailed macaques to the Endangered Species Act and, as Pelletier stated in his testimony, this will ultimately protect these monkeys from further exploitation. 

Pelletier also claimed—falsely—that the FWS provided PETA with a copy of the DOJ indictment and undercover video before they were released. In fact, PETA obtained the video through an open records request and first saw the indictment on the DOJ website after it was released by the agency.

Court documents show that Cambodian government official Kry, who was acquitted, filed a motion to release all court documents from his trial, but Pelletier has filed a motion to prevent this—likely because of the mountains of evidence introduced in court showing that there was a very active monkey-smuggling ring operating out of Cambodia. Seven other Cambodian nationals were also indicted and have not yet been tried by the DOJ.

Pelletier’s client Worldwide Primates has a long history of violating state, federal, and international laws passed to protect primates and public health. Following PETA’s formal February 16, 2023, complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the monkey importer was cited for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act for its role in transporting 167 long-tailed macaques across the country without proper veterinary exams, a move that risked the health of the monkeys and the public at large.

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 the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.