Abolition Vivisection publishes some heartbreaking images on the reality of these atrocious transports and the deplorable conditions that long-tailed macaques endure. 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, coming from Mauritius and the Vietnam, transported in trucks to Camarney SL (Tarragona). ), not to mention many other macaques sent to laboratories in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
When Air France stopped transporting macaques for laboratory slaughter, Brussels airport replaced Paris airport as the main point of entry and stopover for these cruel transfers in Europe. Air travel usually involves several stopovers and can last up to two days. Meanwhile, the macaques are crowded into the warehouse and stay in small boxes where they can barely move and have little (if any) food or water. The airlines responsible for the transport and these sad images are SkyTaxi, SmartLynx, BinAir and Bluebird Nordic (they now continue to provide this transport within the airline AirExplore).
From Brussels, and after the miserable “journey” in the hold of a plane, the macaques bound for Europe are transported in trucks to the center or laboratory which bought their lives. If they go to Camarney – or from there – they remain crammed into the same boxes for another 24 hours. Macaques destined for the UK are flown on another, smaller plane to Manchester, while those bound for the US will continue on the same plane for several more hours.
Camarney also began using Brussels airport to export macaques to Inotiv laboratories in the United States. This heartbreaking image shows one of them, “died” on the long and hellish road transport from Camarney to Brussels.
From 2023 to today, at least 44 transports of macaques intended for experiments have taken place via 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 huddled in Camarney “waiting” to be tortured.
From Abolition Vivisection, in collaboration 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 have written again to the Generalitat of Catalonia to denounce the situation in Camarney, so that the necessary measures are 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, extremely sociable and intelligent animals and 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 testing has been cited as the one of their main threats. Recently, a new analysis was published warning that their situation is even more dire than previously thought.
After the revelation in Cambodia of a network illegally trafficking long-tailed macaques destined for laboratories, with the participation of government officials, and which is currently the subject of an investigation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the States -United, it is impossible to confirm. that this does not happen. The same is true in Vietnam, where Camarney imports about a third of the macaques and there has been evidence of illegal trafficking for years. Since December 2023, Camarney SL has been owned by Charles River Laboratories, an American company that is under investigation in the United States and Canada for the illegal and irregular importation of long-tailed macaques.
Furthermore, a recently published study demonstrates the impossibility for “macaque farms” in the countries of origin to be able to reproduce at the rate at which they are “used” in the laboratory. There are also serious conflicts of interest between “Mauritian macaque farms” and the country’s authorities. Noveprim, the leading ‘macaque farm’ in the Republic of Mauritius and former owner of Camarney, is also currently owned by Charles River Laboratories and is the main exporter of macaques to Camarney. Furthermore, the current Minister of Agribusiness in Mauritius, responsible for overseeing agricultural operations and granting permits, is a former director of Noveprim and local people continue to warn of illegal traps and government corruption regarding export of long-tailed macaques.
The letter addressed to the Generalitat highlights the irresponsibility and inaction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and the Ministry of Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) in controlling the conditions transport of long-tailed macaques and 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, she was fined in Canada for carrying out three transports of 1,980 long-tailed macaques without having the corresponding permits, which represents a violation of IATA regulations on the transport of live animals and the invalidation of CITES permits.
This is particularly concerning given that it was Vivisection Abolition that had to inform Canadian authorities that SkyTaxi was carrying out these transports without the necessary permits, demonstrating the general lack of oversight over compliance with IATA regulations during transports and indicating that many permits CITES may not be valid.
On the other hand, the trafficking and overpopulation of macaques pose a huge risk to public health. Long-tailed macaques can carry serious diseases transmissible to humans, such as Ebola, hepatitis, herpes virus, tuberculosis or melioidosis, which confuse and render even more useless the results of experiments with these primates.
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 incapacity to detect these diseases and to prevent future epidemics which could become pandemics. Constituting an even greater risk due to the constant possibility of macaques escaping from centers or of incidents or negligence during transport.
We particularly wish to emphasize that long-tailed macaques are primates with highly developed cognitive, emotional and social abilities. Keeping them in captivity for their entire lives, transporting and overcrowding them in deplorable conditions, as well as subjecting them to experiments that cause them physical and psychological suffering, is profoundly unjust and cruel. This means treating them as if they were mere tools and denying them the intrinsic value they possess.
Camarney SL has been the largest primate distribution and testing center in Europe for over twenty years, having undoubtedly contributed to the unimaginable suffering of tens of thousands of long-tailed macaques and the plight of this species.
