Animal Protection Party of Canada Calls for an Immediate Suspension of Monkey Imports from Cambodia

/EIN News/ -- TORONTO, Aug. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Animal Protection Party of Canada is calling upon Canadian officials to follow the lead of the U.S. government and suspend the importation of endangered monkeys from Cambodia for use in Canadian laboratories.

In November 2022, the U.S. suspended all shipments of primates from Cambodia following indictments by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service against Cambodian government officials and nationals for an alleged monkey smuggling ring in which long-tailed macaques, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, captured from the wild were misrepresented as having been bred in captivity.

Since the U.S. suspension, Canadian imports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia have increased, and over the past 19 months, thousands of the monkeys have been brought into the country.

On Friday, August 9, 2024 the Canadian Transportation Agency denied a landing permit to a cargo plane loaded with long-tailed macaques from Cambodia for apparently being in violation of International Air Transport Association guidelines. The following day, on August 10, the plane landed at the Montreal-Mirabel airport -- 48 hours after the animals had been loaded. CITES Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Enforcement Directorate have been contacted to determine what enforcement action will be taken.

Canada is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and should be ordering an immediate suspension of all monkey imports from Cambodia until the issue of illegal trade has been resolved.

"Canada has no excuse for willfully ignoring the conservation concerns related to the likelihood that these are wild monkeys laundered through a breeding facility, the humanitarian concerns of animals confined to travel crates for extreme lengths of time, or the concerns about zoonotic illnesses that relate to the importation of non-human primates. Apart from that, the whole practice of so abusing our fellow primates should be a source of shame,” stated Barry Kent MacKay, General Manager of the Animal Protection Party of Canada.

“This is an opportunity for Canada to create a united front with our U.S. counterparts,” said MacKay. “It’s time to show the world that we will not be complicit in the commercial exploitation of an endangered species.”

Contact:
Barry Kent MacKay, General Manager
Animal Protection Party of Canada
905 472 9731 | barry@animalprotectionparty.ca