‘I Pity Them’: Unease Inside the Monkey-Export Business

This is a two-story series looking at a monkey breeding farm in Pursat and allegations made in a U.S. indictment that the firm and the Agriculture Ministry were in cahoots to export wild-captured macaques.

PURSAT CITY, Pursat — The workload at Vanny Bio Research monkey farm goes up as long-tailed macaques are prepared to be boxed in crates and flown to laboratories overseas. Food preparation teams make extra portions to pack for the road. Medical teams give the monkeys extra injections. And the workers watch as the export-ready macaques are separated from the others.

“Every time they export I’m very sad. We have a lot of close contact with the monkeys. They wail. The next day they will be on a plane,” a worker said. “I can’t hold in my feelings. I pity them.” Three employees of Vanny Bio Research spoke to VOD about the Pursat monkey farm, whose management is facing indictment from the U.S. court for allegedly laundering wild-captured monkeys as captive-bred.

An Agriculture Ministry official was arrested in New York on Wednesday in the case, and Cambodia’s Forestry Administration director is also facing charges. All three of the Vanny Bio Research employees who spoke to reporters said they knew of “forest,” or wild, monkeys being brought in from outside.

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