VIDEO: "Brutality on Laboratory Monkey Farms Endemic" say NAVS as Another Dealer is Exposed
LONDON, April 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
To mark the 35th Lab Animal Week, the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) has released shocking images from inside a facility in Tarragona, Spain, that imports monkeys from Mauritius and distributes them around the world for experiments. NAVS footage shows:
- Terrified monkeys dragged from cages and swung by their tails by workers
- Monkeys screaming in fear as their arms are pinned behind their backs
- Sociable monkeys locked alone in tiny, barren cages, with barely room to move
The Spanish farm is run by Noveprim, a monkey dealer operating out of Mauritius, where wild monkeys are trapped and taken to a breeding farm to supplement the breeding stock. In February, NAVS released footage inside another Mauritius monkey dealer, Biodia, revealing similar scenes.
Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of NAVS: "This latest NAVS footage shows the casual brutality and lack of compassion shown to these intelligent, emotional and sensitive monkeys. Two major Mauritian laboratory monkey suppliers are shown to treat their animals with no regard to the terror and suffering they inflict. It is time for the UK Government and the European Parliament to take action on promises to reduce animal use, especially the use of nonhuman primates."
The British Government recently U-turned on its pledge to reduce animal experiments. Last year's statistics showed the number of monkeys experimented on in the UK rose by nearly 50%.
In Europe, the Parliament's Written Declaration in 2007 resolved that the wild capture of monkeys must be ended and steps taken to phase out monkey experiments. The 2010 European Directive on animal experiments gave special protection to nonhuman primates, but loopholes were introduced and progress has stalled.
Jan Creamer: "Members of the public who called for the protection of these monkeys have been betrayed, and so have the animals. We were promised steps to phase out these experiments and tighten up controls on dealers, but our latest investigations show appalling brutality and suffering, right at the heart of the European animal experimentation industry."
Noveprim exports monkeys from Mauritius to its Spanish centre and sends animals from there to laboratories around the world. In 2013, Noveprim exported 143 monkeys from its Mauritius facility, via its Tarragona centre, to Covance, a notorious US laboratory. In total, the monkeys would have had to endure a gruelling journey of at least 9,000 miles before they reached the laboratory where they will be experimented on and killed.
Mauritius is one of the world's largest suppliers of monkeys for experiments, exporting up to 10,000 animals each year. Of the 1,500 monkeys imported into the UK for experiments in 2012, nearly 1,000 of those came from monkey farms in Mauritius - two out of every three monkeys.
FULL RELEASE: http://www.navs.org.uk/media_centre/35/0/3627/
VIDEOS TO EMBED IN ARTICLES © NAVS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWD-7wH4Kpo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GoB4KtNzhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNyDwIKXkY
NAVS undercover investigation on a Mauritian monkey farm
http://www.navs.org.uk/about_vivisection/27/42/3498
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/pictures-caught-tattooed-serial-numbers-3104020
Contact: Fleur Dawes: +44-(0)207-630-3344 or +44-(0)778-555-2548 prdesk@navs.org.uk
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