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Update (April 26, 2023): PETA revealed today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded infamous Charles River Laboratories—which is the subject of ongoing civil and criminal investigations for its possible violations of monkey-importation laws—a staggering $280 million in taxpayer money since 2018 to run multiple laboratories, conduct experiments on animals, and more. We’re urging the agency to reconsider these contracts and, along with Charles River, which may have brought 1,000 endangered monkeys into the U.S. illegally, pay for the lifetime sanctuary care of these animals, whose fate remains uncertain.
NIH unwisely turned over the operation of a number of its laboratories to Charles River, a serial violator of animal welfare regulations. Its rap sheet includes failing to provide adequate veterinary care, failing to provide pain relief to suffering animals, failing to ensure the psychological well-being of primates, allowing a monkey to be scalded to death when her cage was run through a high-temperature washer while she was still inside it, and allowing two monkeys to be baked to death when a thermostat malfunctioned and no one noticed.
And then there was the time a monkey infected with tuberculosis escaped into an NIH laboratory’s HVAC system, posing a threat to humans. Who was running the place? Charlies River, of course.
The company should release those 1,000 monkeys—who may have been abducted from their forest homes—to Born Free USA’s Texas sanctuary and use the blood money it has raked in from NIH to help fund their care. Please ask your members of Congress to urge the same by taking action below.
The lives of 1,000 monkeys, allegedly illegally imported into the U.S. by notorious laboratory supplier Charles River Laboratories, hang in the balance. These animals have been caught up in a massive, ongoing federal investigation into monkey importers here and in Asia.
The feds—who are conducting parallel criminal and civil investigations into Charles River—have said that the 1,000 monkeys can’t be sold to labs in the U.S. The monkeys were allegedly snatched from their forest homes but imported as captive-bred—a violation of federal law. Charles River, apparently thinking about the money and not the monkeys, wants to send them back to Cambodia and from there to other countries to be experimented on.
PETA has been advocating for these monkeys for many months. We and tens of thousands of our supporters have said loud and clear that there’s no way these animals are going back into the trafficking pipeline to be sold to experimenters and killed. They must go to a sanctuary, and we’ve found an excellent one, operated by Born Free USA, that will gladly take them.
So far, we’ve kept the monkeys in this country. But they’re not safe yet.
Charles River brought these animals to the U.S. It robbed them of their homes and families. It stole their freedom. Now the company must be made responsible for their lifetime care.
PETA has pledged $1 million toward sending the monkeys to Born Free’s sanctuary. Now we need the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice to compel Charles River to pay the rest.
ACT NOW! Time is of the essence. Please contact your members of Congress and respectfully ask them to urge these agencies to send the 1,000 monkeys to a sanctuary and to demand that Charles River pay for it.