Air France Protest Goes Into The Boardroom

For Immediate Release:

24 June 2014

Contact:

Ben Williamson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

Campaign to Stop Airline From Shipping Monkeys to Laboratories Steps Up With Stock Purchase

London – Efforts by PETA and its international affiliates to convince Air France to stop transporting thousands of monkeys to laboratories where they will be killed have included public demonstrations outside Air France offices and airport terminals in Los Angeles, Dubai and elsewhere around the world as well as online campaigning, celebrity protests, and more.

Now, PETA US is headed to the airline’s boardroom.

The group has just purchased stock in Air France in order to be able to attend its annual meetings and, as a shareholder, officially call on the company to join every other major airline in the world and stop flying thousands of terrified monkeys to laboratories, where they’re imprisoned, cut into, poisoned, crippled, deprived of food and water, infected with deadly diseases and killed.

“Having the shameful distinction of being the only major airline that ships monkeys to laboratories where they experience pain and misery is bad for business”, says PETA UK’s Mimi Bekhechi. “By buying Air France stock, PETA US will be able to confront shareholders and executives about this cruel trade – and push them to ground it for good.”

Some primates shipped to laboratories come from squalid monkey farms, while others are torn away from their homes and families in the wild. The primates are crammed into small wooden crates and transported inside dark cargo holds for as long as 30 hours before they reach their final – and deadly – destination. Air France shipped at least 5,000 monkeys to US and EU laboratories in 2013.

Peter Gabriel, James Cromwell and Dr Jane Goodall have all spoken out against Air France’s cruelty to monkeys.

For more information on deadly animal testing, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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