Fate of 1,000 trafficked lab monkeys at center of US investigation in limbo

Long-tailed macaques at risk of being killed, or laundered or re-trafficked if returned to Cambodia, animal welfare groups say

More than a thousand Cambodian monkeys at the center of a US government investigation into wildlife trafficking are at risk of being killed or returned to their country of origin, laundered and re-trafficked, animal welfare groups say. The monkeys’ plight first came to light last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asked the animal rights organization Peta about finding a sanctuary for 360 monkeys. Born Free USA, and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) later joined the discussions and the number of monkeys increased to over 1,000 as talks progressed.

Last week, however, discussions stalled when Peta learned on 13 March that the monkeys would instead be flown out of the US. Under US law the monkeys can only return to their country of origin, Cambodia, said Dr Lisa Jones-Engel of Peta, but neither the DoJ nor the FWS has confirmed this. The 1,000 or so juvenile long-tailed macaques are understood to be at a primate center in Houston, Texas, owned by Charles River Laboratories, a US company that buys, sells and tests on animals.

read more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/20/trafficked-lab-monkeys-cambodia-us-investigation