Abolition Vivisection publishes some heartbreaking images about the reality of these atrocious transports and the deplorable conditions that long-tailed macaques suffer in them. The information and images, obtained by Animal Rights Belgium, are part of ten inspections carried out at Brussels airport during 2023 and until July 2024, and show dozens of macaques, from Mauritius and Vietnam, being transported in trucks to o from Camarney SL (Tarragona), in addition to many other macaques being sent to laboratories in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
When Air France stopped transporting macaques for slaughter in laboratories, Brussels airport replaced Paris airport as the main entry and stopover point for these cruel transfers in Europe. Air transportation usually involves several stops and can last up to two days. During that time, the macaques are crammed into the warehouse and remain in small boxes where they can barely move and where they have little (if any) food or water. The airlines responsible for the transports and these sad images are SkyTaxi, SmartLynx, BinAir and Bluebird Nordic (they now continue to provide these transports as part of the airline AirExplore).
From Brussels, and after the miserable “journey” in the hold of a plane, the macaques destined for Europe are transported in trucks to the center or laboratory that has bought their lives. If they go to Camarney – or from there – they remain crammed in the same boxes for another 24 hours. The macaques destined for the United Kingdom are transported on another smaller plane to Manchester, while those going to the United States will continue on the same plane for several more hours.
Camarney has also begun to use Brussels airport to export macaques to Inotiv laboratories in the United States. This heartbreaking image shows one of them, who “died” on the long, hellish road transport from Camarney to Brussels.
From 2023 to today there have been at least 44 transports of macaques for use in experimentation through Brussels airport. Each of these transports carried hundreds of these macaques, which have already been tortured and killed in some experiments, are currently being tortured or remain crammed in Camarney “waiting” to be tortured.
From Abolition Vivisection, together with the organizations Animal Alliance Canada, Animal Rights Belgium, Animal Protection Party of Canada, Center for Animal Ethics (CAE), FAADA, GEPEC-Edc, Jane Goodall Spain, LAV, MONA, One Voice and PETA, now The academics Marta Tafalla and Núria Almirón, we have written again to the Generalitat of Catalonia to denounce the situation in Camarney, so that the necessary measures can be taken for its closure. Camarney is a miserable place that should never have existed and is responsible for the torture and murder of tens of thousands of macaques, animals that are extremely sociable and intelligent and are in danger of extinction.
Long-tailed macaques were declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2022. The continued capture and trafficking of these animals for animal experimentation was cited as one of their main threats. . Recently, a new analysis has been published, warning that their situation is even more dramatic than estimated.
After a network of illegal trafficking of long-tailed macaques destined for laboratories has been revealed in Cambodia, with the participation of government officials, and which is currently being investigated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States, it is impossible to confirm that it is not happening. The same in Vietnam, where Camarney imports around a third of the macaques and where there has been evidence of illegal trafficking for years. Since December 2023, Camarney SL belongs to Charles River Laboratories, an American company that is being investigated in both the United States and Canada for the illegal and irregular importation of long-tailed macaques.
Furthermore, a study has recently been published that demonstrates the impossibility of “macaque farms” in the countries of origin being able to breed at the rate at which they are “used” in laboratories. There are also serious conflicts of interest between the “Mauritian macaque farms” and the country’s authorities. Noveprim, the main “macaque farm” in the Republic of Mauritius and former owner of Camarney, is also currently owned by Charles River Laboratories and the main exporter of macaques to Camarney. Furthermore, the current Minister of Agribusiness of Mauritius, responsible for supervising the farms and the permits granted, is a former director of Noveprim and the local population continues to warn of illegal traps and corruption in the Government regarding the export of macaques from long tail.
The letter to the Generalitat points out the irresponsibility and inaction on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and the Ministry for the Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) in supervising the conditions of transport of long-tailed macaques and in verifying the legitimacy and validity of all permits.
The letter explains that the airline SkyTaxi is currently primarily responsible for transporting macaques to laboratories, including Camarney. On October 2, it was fined in Canada for carrying out three transports of 1,980 long-tailed macaques without having the relevant permits, which represents a violation of IATA regulations on the transport of live animals and the invalidation of CITES permits. .
This is especially worrying given the fact that it was Vivisection Abolition that had to notify the Canadian authorities that SkyTaxi was making these transports without the necessary permits, demonstrating the general lack of supervision over compliance with IATA regulations during transports and indicating that many CITES permits may not be valid.
On the other hand, the trafficking and overcrowding of macaques constitutes an enormous risk to public health. Long-tailed macaques can be carriers of serious diseases transmissible to humans, such as Ebola, hepatitis, herpes virus, tuberculosis or melioidosis, which confuse and make the results of experimentation with these primates even more useless.
The recent case of tuberculosis in macaques imported from Vietnam by Anapath Research (Barcelona), which affected four other European countries, or the detection of melioidosis in macaques after having passed the quarantine period in the United States, demonstrate the inability to detect these diseases and to prevent future outbreaks that could become pandemics. Constituting an even greater risk due to the constant possibility of macaques escaping from the centers or of incidents or negligence during transport.
We are especially interested in highlighting that long-tailed macaques are primates with highly developed cognitive, emotional and social abilities. Keeping them in captivity all their lives, transporting them and overcrowding them in deplorable conditions, as well as subjecting them to experiments that cause them physical and psychological suffering, is deeply unfair and cruel. It means treating them as if they were just tools, and denying them the intrinsic value they possess.
Camarney SL has been the largest distribution and experimentation center for primates in Europe for more than twenty years, having undoubtedly contributed to the unimaginable suffering of tens of thousands of long-tailed macaques and to the critical situation of this species.
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