Good News! Portuguese Airline Bans Cruel Animal Shipments

Posted by on November 3, 2015 | Permalink

TAP Portugal is Portugal’s leading airline. And now, following talks with PETA US, it’s leading the way ethically, too. The airline has just put in place a company-wide ban on all shipments of shark fins, the body parts of endangered animals killed by hunters and animals bound for laboratories.

I am not a trophy

It’s great news that TAP Portugal has taken a stand against cruelty. It joins Delta Air Lines and American Airlines in refusing to transport animal trophies, while almost every major airline now has a ban on shipping primates for experiments. These policies are making things harder for the industries that kill and exploit animals around the world and also reassuring customers that they’re not sharing their flight with a terrified animal or a hunter’s sick trophy.

The shark-finning industry kills nearly 100 million sharks and billions of other sea animals every year. Wealthy trophy hunters take pleasure in killing beautiful, often endangered wild animals for “sport”. And animals shipped to laboratories are either kidnapped from the wild or bred on squalid farms before being packed into cargo boxes for a gruelling journey which will end in a barren laboratory. There, these animals will face further suffering and, eventually, death.

We’re hoping all airlines will follow TAP Portugal’s example and adopt similar compassionate policies. In particular, we’re calling on Air France to fall into line with the rest of the aviation industry and stop shipping primates for vivisection.

Please help – send a message to Air France here: