U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Add These Monkeys to the Endangered Species List!

Update (April 12, 2023): PETA, prominent primate scientists including Jane Goodall and Birutė Galdikas, and more than 30 wildlife and scientific organizations from around the world have urged the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to immediately include long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move that should likely greatly restrict their importation into the U.S. and therefore help prevent both species from being wiped off the planet by the voracious, monkey-killing animal experimentation industry.

PETA’s formal rulemaking petitions (here and here) point out that under current rules, a species can be granted ESA protections if it faces a single threatening factor. Long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques face multiple challenges, not the least of which is “overutilization for … scientific … purposes.”

“The long-tailed macaque has experienced catastrophic population decline for decades and is projected to experience at least a 50% decline in the next 40 years,” one of the petitions reads. “As the leading importer in the trade in live long-tailed macaques, the U.S. adds its weight to that push. The FWS has the authority and the obligation to act swiftly and add long-tailed macaques to the list of animals protected under the ESA.”

The FWS now has 90 days to evaluate whether the petitions to protect the monkeys as endangered present sufficient evidence. The clock is ticking—the agency needs to hear from you now.

Please TAKE ACTION below by urging the FWS to list long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques as endangered species today!

Original post:

Why have endangered monkeys been sent to the U.S. by the thousands, destined for cruel and deadly experiments?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animals, issued a dire report in July 2022: Animal experimentation has pushed two species of monkeys to the brink of extinction.

Recent assessments of wild populations of long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques, conducted by primatologists throughout Southeast Asia, yielded staggering data on the increasing threats to these once plentiful monkeys. Based on the data, the IUCN elevated these two species from “vulnerable” to “endangered,” landing both of them on its Red List of Threatened Species, among the other most endangered species on the planet. The IUCN warned that if immediate action isn’t taken, these species will face catastrophic population declines in coming years.

A devastating and reversible threat facing long-tailed macaques is their trapping and export for the primate experimentation industry.

These species have been part of the social and cultural traditions throughout Asia for millennia. They play critical roles in the ecosystem and are individuals with the right to lead their own lives in their own homes—but they’ve succumbed to the experimentation industry’s demand for a steady stream of animals for misleading and wasteful experiments. Every year, tens of thousands of long-tailed macaques are imported, and many are caught up in a monkey-abduction pipeline that’s emptying Asia’s forests and filling the cages of commercial importers and experimenters in the U.S. Experts tell PETA that there will soon be no wild long-tailed macaques left in Cambodia, Laos, or Vietnam. The demand for these animals to be captured and sent to the U.S. has surged, and the false claims issued by experimenters about a supposed “monkey shortage” have likely played a role in alleged monkey laundering and smuggling.

In light of the IUCN’s findings and the subsequent acceleration of the populations’ decline in their natural habitats, the FWS has the authority and the obligation to add long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques to the list of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Listing them could stop the importation of these primates abducted from their homes in nature and require the implementation of a plan for the species’ recovery.

The FWS needs to act!

There’s no time to waste. The future of these monkeys—and their native homes that depend on them—are in the hands of the agency.

Urge the FWS to include long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques under the ESA!

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