Monkeys share 90% of their DNA with humans, a relationship that makes them an ideal raw material for laboratories. Most often imported, these sensitive beings often succumb to dramatic transport conditions. One Voice is campaigning for a ban on tests on primates and denounces the importing of these animals, especially as these tests represent a clear health risk for humans. The review of the 86 European Directives provides new grounds for optimism.
Did you know ? A small monkey deprived of its mother can compensate by attaching itself to substitutes like a « cuddly toy » ? An adult monkey has the mental capacity of a 3-year old child. How can we even consider locking them in a cage, depriving them of any contact with others of their species, injecting them with active ingredients with often irreversible consequences and repeated anaesthesia? This is what primates must endure in breeding centres or laboratories. Man’s cousins are very popular when it comes to experiments. They also undergo the longest experiments. Some Macaques were held in a Parisian laboratory for 23 years. The conditions under which they are held cause physical suffering and stress, which causes them to pull out their hair one by one, a gesture that becomes their sole source of entertainment; violence occurs become animals, with one becoming a target for another.
Fighting breeding
Whether they are captured in their natural environment or bred in captivity in breeding centres, these animals present the same physical or mental problems. A monkey remains a monkey with its own abilities and aspirations. One Voice was able to demonstrate this during the legal liberation of laboratory animals. The association is therefore opposed to the opening of breeding centres on French soil, such as the Holtzheim centre after two years of combat.
Dramatic transport conditions
Primates, which are imported in most circumstances, are subject to dramatic transport conditions which condemn many of them to death. In fact, the law demands that wooden cases are not opened while animals are being transported. How then can they eat and drink? Thanks to actions launched at European level against primate transporters, some airlines have stopped this type of transport. One Voice is leading a vast information campaign and is circulating a petition to ask Air France to follow other companies’ example and refuse to participate in this shameful trade.
Dangerous for humans
Even if they present an undeniable relationship with humans, monkeys are no less different in their reactions to viruses and other illnesses. Importing primates captured in their natural habitat – as is the case in France where there are the most experiments on primates in the whole of the 27 European Union Member States – poses a risk of importing pathologies which are deadly to humans. The example of a Macaque from China for the Nantes veterinary school that was carrying the Herpes B virus is one sad example of this. Neither the blood tests or quarantine imposed on all animals arriving in France could detect this virus: in monkeys, the window period for this virus can exceed 25 months! The foundation behind research with primates as models for AIDS, hepatitis, malaria and Parkinson’s disease is then contested in medical terms.
A very serious hope
In the context of the review of the 1986 European Directive, four MEPs including, significantly, one French MEP, have made a written declaration demanding a complete stop on tests on primates, to be replaced by alternative methods whose effectiveness is already recognised. This declaration, which is by far the most radical ever proposed in relation to animal experiments, is in line with One Voice’s own campaigns. The association has grasped this opportunity to change the Law and has asked MEPs to adopt this declaration, No. 40, by a wide majority. This mobilisation is the first to take a strong stand in favour of primates and provides serious hope for the fight against animal experiments.
“Even chimpanzees, which are genetically very close to humans and share 98.7% of their genetic material with man, are poor models for studying AIDS and other human illnesses due to their natural immunity to HIV and an immune system that has different specifics to our own”.
(see J. G. Hacia – TRENDS IN GENETICS, vol 17, No. 11, pages 637-645)
Mauritius, hell for primates
Mauritius is a reference in terms of “scientific” monkey breeding. The country is a major exporter of primates intended for biomedical experiments. The capture and export of Macaques represents a lucrative trade for each link in the chain of this legalised traffic. Every year, the National Park obtains over 300 000 Euro by exporting primates. Over 14 000 monkeys are held prisoner in transit centres across the whole island. 7000 of them are exported every year. Several thousand poachers are working completely illegally in Africa and Madagascar to supply breeding farms. Mauritius’s natural Macaque population contains around 60 000 individuals: what will it rise to in future if other breeding centres are set up to satisfy the West’s greed?
