Local YouTubers stand around a female monkey as she holds her baby near the Bayon temple of an Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, on April 2.Heng Sinith/The Canadian Press
Animal-welfare advocates and MPs are urging the Canadian government to prevent endangered monkeys that were imported from Cambodia for use in a laboratory being released from quarantine within days, saying they should be sent to a sanctuary instead.
Since early last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been denying permits for the import of Cambodian macaques after an investigation found evidence that thousands of monkeys caught in the wild had been smuggled to the U.S. from Cambodia.
Animal-welfare advocates and MPs say that since the U.S. authorities took action, Canada has seen an exponential increase in imports. They want Canada to stop importing Cambodian macaques for use in labs while questions remain about whether the shipments could include illegally wild-caught animals.
According to Statistics Canada, 6,769 monkeys were imported to Canada from Cambodia between January, 2023, when the U.S. authorities stopped issuing permits, and September.
Advocates want Canadian authorities to refuse to release macaques that arrived from Cambodia last month and are due to end their quarantine within days. The advocates say the number of macaques now in quarantine could be as high as 600. Another shipment is expected to arrive from Cambodia this week, according to Canadian Transportation Agency records.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) alleges that Charles River Laboratories, which is based in the U.S., is increasing imports to Canada and has been “exploiting regulatory loopholes” to export dead monkey specimens to their U.S. laboratories from Canada.
PETA says records obtained through U.S. freedom of information laws show that specimens such as blood and tissues from macaques are being sent by Charles River Laboratories in Canada to its facilities south of the border.
Pamela Shaver-Walker, corporate vice-president of Charles River globally, said it abides “by the highest standards of animal and veterinary care and all of our global shipments are made in compliance with applicable local, national and international regulations.”
“Charles River has voluntarily suspended future shipments of NHPs [non-human primates] from Cambodia to the U.S. until such time we and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can develop and implement additional procedures to reasonably ensure confidence that the NHPs we import from Cambodia are purpose-bred,” she said.
“Charles River fully and transparently complies with Canadian regulations.”
The long-tailed macaque is the most heavily traded non-human primate species and the most widely used for research and toxicity testing. It is protected under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with exporting countries requiring permits issued by CITES authorities.
An indictment in the Southern District of Florida says Cambodian monkey farms may have euthanized captive-bred animals found unsuitable for export and transferred their identification tags to wild-caught macaques. Their CITES permits falsely identified them as captive-bred.
“It’s impossible for Canada Border Services Agency or any Canadian authority to definitively know that any Cambodian-origin monkeys were not illegally stolen from the wild and falsely labelled as purpose-bred,” said Amy Meyer, PETA’s associate director of primate experimentation campaigns.
The Born Free Foundation says the macaques can have a home at their sanctuary in Texas. But it wants Charles River Laboratories, which imported them into Canada, to foot the bill for their housing and upkeep.
“We are in the business of giving animals a second chance,” Angela Grimes, CEO of the foundation, said in an interview.
NDP MP Matthew Green, who is among the MPs to have written to the Prime Minister about the issue, said there were enough doubts about the origin of the macaques that Charles River Laboratories should not be allowed to retain possession of them. He has asked the federal government to intervene.
He said placing the macaques in sanctuaries is “the right course of action” and called on the company to release them when their quarantine period ends.
Macaques are used in preclinical trials of drugs to treat illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and rare diseases.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspects the macaques on arrival in Canada to ensure they meet import requirements and pose no serious risks to animal or human health.
“In the event long-tailed macaques were harvested, traded, or transported illegally, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Enforcement Officers may take appropriate action in accordance with the Compliance and enforcement policy for wildlife legislation,” the agency said in a statement.
Environment and Climate Change Canada will inspect the macaques after their 30-day quarantine period is over.
“ECCC currently has no information to indicate the macaques imported into Canada were harvested from the wild,” said its spokesperson, Samuel Lafontaine.
But animal-welfare groups want Canada to follow the lead of the U.S. while doubts remain about their origins.
Sarah Kite, co-founder of Action for Primates, a British-based advocacy group, said ‘’Canada’s willingness to continue to give a green light to the import of thousands of macaques from Cambodia, thereby ignoring the compelling evidence uncovered of a macaque-trafficking ring operating out of the country, is alarming.”