Born Free Condemns Monkey Export as "A Death Sentence," Offer of Sanctuary Rejected by Government

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Mar 15, 2023, 11:56 ET

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Born Free USA, a leading animal welfare nonprofit, along with partners at PETA, urge the public to contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ask the agency to reverse its decision to re-export hundreds of endangered juvenile long-tail macaques to Cambodia, where they will likely by recycled back into a cruel system of exploitation, and instead let the animals be rehomed to Born Free USA's primate sanctuary.

Born Free USA and other animal welfare organizations are calling on supporters to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue working to rescue hundreds of young endangered long-tail macaques that have been illegally imported from Cambodia for exploitation in laboratories in the United States.

Since September, Born Free USA and their colleagues at PETA have worked with Fish and Wildlife officials to rescue a group of macaques that had been illegally imported from Cambodia for exploitation in laboratories in the United States. After months of negotiation and planning, Born Free USA agreed to accept the monkeys at its primate sanctuary in south Texas.

On March 13, Fish and Wildlife Services announced that the monkeys would instead be sent back to Cambodia, where they will likely be reintroduced into the same illegal system and end their short lives in a laboratory.

"We have been in talks with Fish and Wildlife Services since September of last year and have repeatedly reiterated our desire and willingness to provide lifetime sanctuary for these young monkeys," said Dr. Liz Tyson-Griffin, programs director and head of sanctuary at Born Free USA. "These young monkeys will either be abandoned with no attempt at rehabilitation, or simply recycled back through the system and re-exported for exploitation in other labs. Either way, their future is bleak — this is a death sentence. They deserve safety. They deserve to be cherished as individuals and not exploited as commodities. Please join us in calling for these monkeys to be sent to a safe sanctuary home, where they can heal and live without fear of exploitation."

PETA has made a generous pledge of $1 million to help fund the rescue of the monkeys if Fish and Wildlife Services is willing to agree plans for providing long-term sanctuary to these monkeys. The American Anti-Vivisection Society made another generous pledge to save the monkeys. If successful, this would be the largest monkey rescue in history.

In a statement last night, Lisa Jones-Engel of PETA said, "The monkeys did not leave Charles River Laboratories. PETA stationed individuals all day long outside the company's Houston facility, and none of the 1,000 monkeys who were in danger of being shipped back to Cambodia left. Thousands of PETA supporters e-mailed and called the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, urging the agency to release the animals to a sanctuary instead of allowing them to be sent back to Cambodia to be funneled back into the forest-to-laboratory pipeline. PETA pledges $1 million for the placement of all the monkeys at Born Free USA primate sanctuary in Texas."

Said Angela Grimes, Born Free USA CEO, "An operation to rescue this many monkeys is a huge practical and financial undertaking but, with the right funding and the time to create the infrastructure to support their care, it is possible and our team is standing ready to get it done. We urge U.S. Fish and Wildlife to reengage with us and to continue the positive discussions we have been involved in since September of last year. Rescue is an option. These monkeys have a home here."

You can take action to save these monkeys at https://www.bornfreeusa.org/save1000monkeys/.

About Born Free USA
Born Free USA works to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect and are able to live their lives according to their needs. We oppose the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaign to keep them where they belong—in the wild. Born Free USA's Primate Sanctuary is the largest in the United States and provides a permanent home for hundreds of primates rehomed from laboratories or rescued from zoos and private ownership. We're social: www.bornfreeusa.org, www.twitter.com/bornfreeusa, www.facebook.com/bornfreeusa, www.instagram.com/bornfreeusaorg, www.tiktok.com/@bornfreeusaorg.