6 February 2025: Urgent Call for Mauritius to Reject Monkey Experiment Deal with Charles River Laboratories

Animal protection groups from Mauritius, the USA and Europe, have written to the Mauritian Prime Minister, appealing for the Government to abandon plans to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Charles River Laboratories. In their letter to the Prime Minister, the groups provide detailed documentation exposing the failures and risks of monkey experimentation, the ethical and scientific horrors of this industry, and the availability of modern, humane, human-relevant alternatives. If approved, the MOU would enable the company to carry out pre-clinical testing, including toxicity (poisoning) testing, in the country using long-tailed macaques. The appeal follows a statement made by Dr Arvin Boolell, the Mauritian Minister of Agriculture, during an interview on Radio One (LE FACE A FACE) broadcast on 22nd January 2025 (1).

The groups (2) asked that the Mauritius government reject the MOU. With the scientific community increasingly questioning the use of monkeys on ethical, moral, and scientific grounds – and groundbreaking, non-animal technologies rapidly advancing – signing an MOU would be a regressive and short-sighted move. Instead of clinging to an outdated and ineffective practice, Mauritius has the opportunity to lead in the global shift toward humane, human-relevant, and cutting-edge research methods that represent the true future of science.

The continued use of monkeys in research is not only ethically and scientifically flawed, but also poses a serious public health risk. Mauritius has already been linked to multiple shipments of tuberculosis-infected monkeys, underscoring the dangers of this trade.

Mauritius' global image as a popular holiday destination is already tarnished by its large-scale monkey export industry, with over 10,000 macaques shipped annually to testing laboratories in the USA and Europe. The establishment of a testing facility by Charles River Laboratories – one of the most controversial users of long-tailed macaques – would only deepen this stain. Not only would it further damage the country's reputation, it would also drive an increase in the capture, breeding, suffering, infectious disease transmission and deaths of these exploited animals. Instead of expanding this cruel industry, Mauritius should take a stand against it.

In 2023, Charles River became the subject of US federal criminal and civil investigations for possible violations of the law involving the import of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia (3). A US Fish and Wildlife Service investigation conducted between 2018 and 2022, provided evidence that an estimated 30,000 wild-caught macaques of Cambodian origin had been falsely labelled as captive bred on CITES permits and imported into the US. During this time, Charles River imported more than 1,000 monkeys into the US from Cambodia, and as these monkeys may have been imported illegally, they are in limbo after the Fish and Wildlife Service stopped their sale to laboratories (4).

In February 2023, Charles River announced it was suspending imports from Cambodia into the US until it could ensure monkeys were not illegally captured – but then began importing these monkeys into Canada instead. As a result, the company is now also under investigation in Canada. The company has a long history of violating laws and regulations, including failing to provide suffering animals with pain relief or appropriate medical care, failing to conduct proper veterinary inspections before transporting monkeys, and baking monkeys alive when no one noticed a thermostat malfunction (5).

References:

1. Radio One: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=watch_permalink&v=1141128160984860
2. Monkey Massacre in Mauritius, PeTA (USA), Action for Primates (UK), Cheshire Animal Rights Campaigns (UK), One Voice (France) and Abolición Vivisección (Spain)
3. https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/charles-river-labs-monkeys-subpoena/
4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/20/trafficked-lab-monkeys-cambodia-us-investigation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
5. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/outcry-over-grisly-deaths-in-lab-monkeys/