Dale Vince Implements Ecotricity Boycott Of Air France Over Shipment Of Monkeys To Laboratories
13 March 2015
Founder Dale Vince Joins PETA in Calling for Last Remaining Major Airline to Stop Transporting Primates to Labs
London – The founder and managing director of renewable-energy company Ecotricity,Dale Vince OBE, fired off a letter this morning calling on Air France to stop transporting monkeys to laboratories, where they’re caged, experimented on and killed. Ecotricity, founded in 1996 by ‘wind tycoon’ Dale Vince began with a single wind turbine and now supplies thousands of people with green electricity.
In his letter, the vegan managing director points out that Air France are the onlyremaining major airline that still participate in what Vince describes as a sickening practice and explains that until Air France join “every other major airline in the world in banning this practice, my company will operate a ‘no fly policy’ in respect of Air France”. He joins a growing list of celebrities – including Peter Gabriel, Dr Jane Goodall, Chris Packham and James Cromwell – who’ve spoken out against Air France’s cruelty to primates.
The full text of Vince’s letter is available below. For more information about Air France’s cruel practices, please see PETA’s video “Air France in 60 Seconds” or visitPETA.org.uk.
13th March 2015
Dear Mr de Juniac
Although I do my best to lead a lifestyle that has as low an impact on the environment as possible, I still find that air travel is often a necessity. When I fly I place great importance not only on the environmental efforts of the airline I choose but also on its ethics.
Having previously flown with Air France, I was shocked to learn from my friends at PETA that you are the last airline that continues to ship monkeys to laboratories in the EU and the US. These highly intelligent, sensitive animals are either torn away from their homes and families in the wild or bred in squalid conditions on notorious factory farms in Asia and Africa. They are then shipped – by your airline – to laboratories, where they face even greater horrors, including being intentionally brain-damaged, shocked, addicted to drugs or force-fed chemicals, before they are finally killed. All this suffering, pain and fear occurs for experiments which – as articles in the prestigious publication BMJ have highlighted – fail to translate into effective treatments for humans.
It truly sickens me to think that these terrified monkeys, crammed into tiny wooden crates for as long as 30 hours before they reach their final destination, are frequently flown in Air France cargo holds – right below the feet of passengers who are completely unaware that purchasing a ticket from your airline means that they are supporting this shameful trade and condemning these wonderful animals to death. I would hope you can see that for Air France to be the last remaining airline to facilitate this cruelty to animals is an immense stain on your reputation?
Conscience dictates that until you join every other major airline in the world in banning this practice, my company will operate a ‘no fly policy’ in respect of Air France.
Yours sincerely
Dale Vince OBE
Founder