AR2010:

“The Tragedy of Trade”

The International Primate Trade: Monkey Business Goes Global

Dr. Shirley McGreal

International Primate Protection League

www.ippl.org

“No Place on Earth” Untouched

by the Primate Trade Nepalese mountaineer

Jyamchang Bhote on Mt.

Everest with IPPL’s

protest banner, May 2009

IPPL campaigns with

WWG (Nepal) to ban

native rhesus exports

Nepal’s monkeys highlight

sustainability and

globalization issues

“Plain” Monkeys Under Hidden

Threat from “Legal” Export Primates imported into

U.S. in 2009 (USFWS):

• Crab-eating macaque

monkeys: 19,979 (90%)

• Rhesus macaque

monkeys: 1,596

• Other monkeys/

prosimians: 515

• Apes: 8

Can this continue, even

for “common” monkeys?

International primate trade most affected by CITES

CITES: leading international treaty governing trade in endangered species (1975)

Most nations (175 out of 195) are signatories

Appendix II and I listings • II: trade permitted if animals

legally removed from the wild and “no detriment” to species

• I: commercial trade banned (import and export permits needed for transport)

Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species

Primates and Appendices

All primates are on either Appendix I or II

Appendix I: Includes all apes and all lemurs (as well as many monkeys)

Appendix II (less protected) monkey species like macaques traded more easily

• Traded with only export permits

• Export permits easily falsified

• Wild-caught animals listed as captive-born to evade regulations

Multinational corporations/ research facilities exploit these loopholes

Example 1: Monkey Laundering Cambodia ► China ► The West

Cambodia: Wild-caught macaques transferred to breeding/collecting centers • Wild-caught and captive-born

monkeys shipped to China

• Suspect “captive born” documents often used

China: Monkeys become menu items/export items

The West: Monkeys in high demand for biowarfare experiments Cambodian monkeys

awaiting export

Example 2: Chinese Numbers Wild-caught ► “Captive-bred”

China has no native crab-

eating macaques

China claims: exported only

“12,244” of these “captive-

bred” monkeys 2004-2007

(CITES workshop, Nov. 2008)

But U.S. alone imported

13,952 from China in 2007

(USFWS)

Example 3: Outsourced to Malaysia

Research/breeding sites ► Developing nations

EU debates on phasing

out primate research

Pharmaceutical

companies increasingly

seeking to outsource

research and testing

Issues of welfare, legal

recourse, etc.

IPPL (UK) and BUAV protest at Malaysian High Commission

Example 4: Nepal “Monkey Farms” Native monkeys ► Western labs

Rhesus export ban from

India/etc. since 1970s,

results in alleged

“shortage” of monkeys

Native rhesus monkeys

sought for 2 U.S. labs

Nepal cancels export

plans in August 2009,

200+ monkeys released

into national park! Former monkey holding and

breeding center in Lele, Nepal

Contact the

International Primate Protection League

IPPL

P.O. Box 766

Summerville, SC 29484

Phone: 843-871-2280

Fax: 843-871-7988

E-mail: info@ippl.org

Web: www.ippl.org