Air China Stops Shipping Monkeys to Laboratores, Under Pressure from PETA

For Immediate Release:
1 August 2012

Contact:
Ben Williamson +44(0)7525411733; [email protected]

London – Following a vigorous campaign by PETA and its international affiliates that included complaints to the government, public protests and thousands of e-mails and phone calls, Air China has confirmed to PETA US that it is joining China Southern Airlines, China Airlines and dozens of other leading companies in the cargo and passenger airline industry worldwide in refusing to transport monkeys to laboratories. In an e-mail sent yesterday, Air China’s cargo manager, Jason Wang, wrote, “[Air China has] stopped conducting this business”. The airline’s decision comes less than 24 hours after PETA US asked its Facebook and Twitter followers to call Air China Cargo’s main office at John F Kennedy airport in New York and demand that the airline stop shipping primates to laboratories – a move that led to thousands of phone calls to the company.

“The supply of monkeys to animal laboratories is a global business, dependent on the handful of airlines still willing to dirty their hands with this trade. Now that Air China is no longer participating in this bloody trade, experimenters will find it harder to get their hands on more victims”, says PETA UK founder Ingrid E Newkirk. “PETA will continue to pressure airlines worldwide to follow Air China’s lead and stop delivering primates to certain suffering and death.”

PETA US’ complaints to the US Department of Agriculture regarding Air China’s unsafe handling of laboratory-bound monkeys resulted in citations against the airline for violating federal law. Action alerts posted on PETA’s website and those of its international affiliates prompted tens of thousands of people to e-mail Air China.
Nearly every major domestic and international airline – including British Airways, American, Delta, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Air India and dozens of others – refuses to transport primates to laboratories, where they are caged, tormented in painful experiments and then killed. Only a small handful of airlines – such as Air France, China Eastern Airlines, United Airlines subsidiary Continental Cargo, Philippine Airlines and Vietnam Airlines – continue this practice.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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