IPPL Founder and Executive Shirley McGreal delivered this presentation at the "Free the Animals: Effective Action Against Vivisection" conference in Saint Louis, MO,

1. Free the Animals:
Effective Action Against Vivisection
Conference
October 27-28, 2012
The International Trade in
Primates for Laboratories
Dr. Shirley McGreal
IPPL Founder and Executive Director
TM

2. U.S. 2011 import statistics
 U.S. is a huge importer of
primates for research:
18,140 in 2011
 Crab-eating macaques
are the most commonly
imported species (89%)
 China remains the largest
country of origin for U.S.’s
imported primates (70%)

3. Problems with import statistics
 Some shipments are not
reported to USFWS
 It’s unclear if USFWS inspects
animal shipments bound for
labs via military bases
 It’s hard to obtain comparison
data from Customs and CDC
databases
 USFWS statistics represent
minimum numbers of imports

4. The crab-eating macaque
 Macaca fascicularis, AKA:
• Long-tailed macaque
• Cynomolgus monkey
(“cyno” for short)
• Java macaque
 Once widespread through
much of Southeast Asia
 On CITES Appendix II
 IUCN “Least Concern”

5. The Chinese trade
 Crab-eating macaques
are not native to China
 Nevertheless, China has
become the main supplier
to world markets
 China is suspected of
raiding the wild monkey
populations of neighboring
countries and calling them
“captive bred”

6. 1977: India bans primate exports
 After IPPL uncovered primate abuse in military
experiments, India banned rhesus monkey exports.
 “Received your letter of 3rd yesterday evening. You are quite correct
in saying that I banned the export of monkeys on a humanitarian
basis… I believe in preventing cruelty to all living beings in any form.
This is the ancient Indian culture and is a part of vegetarianism.”
Morarji Desai, former Prime Minister of India, 1985
 “I now realise from Mr Desai’s letter that the International Primate
Protection League played the really key role in getting the ban
declared in the first place and that the ban indeed reflected Indian
concern over the cruel and inhumane use of primates.”
Dr. Charles Southwick, conservationist, 1985

7. After 1977: Trading places
Rhesus macaque Crab-eating macaque
(Macaca mulatta) (Macaca fascicularis)

8. Global exports of crab-eating macaques
(Source: CITES database)
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0

9. Total number of crab-eating
macaques traded through 2010
1,089,124

10. 2004: Project BioShield
 $5.6 billion over 10 years
 Focus on animal testing
 Stockpile and develop vaccines
• Anthrax
• Ebola
• Smallpox
• Plague
• H1N1

11. A secret plea from Cambodia
“A Korea listed company Orient Bio group buy a
monkey farm in kampong chhnang province, Cambodia.
The status of the farm is very bad. Food for monkey is
only corn or pumpkin per day. All monkey house is
broken, a lot of sharp broken metal inside pen can hurt
monkey. The health status of monkey is very bad. You
can see the individual cage is terrible to monkey. A lot
of monkey died every day. They only put the dead body
under the soil. Attached a lot of photo for you to see.”

12. Inside a Cambodian monkey farm

13. Inside a Cambodian monkey farm

14. Inside a Cambodian monkey farm

15. Inside a Cambodian monkey farm

16. Cambodian monkey farm,
capacity: 15,000

17. Cambodian monkey farm,
capacity: 35,000

18. Latest trend: Primates on demand

19. Wild-caught crab-eating macaques

20. The real face of the primate trade…
Photo credit: BUAV

21. Possible actions
 Have protests/letters targeting
embassies
 Improve macaque PR
 Do undercover investigations
following inside leads
 Campaign to upgrade
macaque status from CITES
Appendix II to I
 Ask other groups what they are
doing to protect macaques

22. Stay in touch with the International
Primate Protection League!
TM
P.O. Box 766
Summerville, SC 29484
E-mail: info@ippl.org
Web: www.ippl.org
Phone: 843-871-2280