The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the one international authority with the power to stop this cruelty cold by suspending exports of long-tailed macaques from Southeast Asia. So far, it’s turned a blind eye, while shady monkey peddlers push long-tailed macaques toward extinction.
Endangered long-tailed macaques, destined for export, are confined inside filthy concrete block enclosures at a Cambodian breeding farm.
And there’s more. The CITES Secretary-General recently recommended removing Cambodia, the Philippines, and Vietnam from the review of Significant Trade, which would end heightened oversight and allow macaque exports from these countries to continue with even fewer checks.
PETA is now calling for the immediate removal of this derelict top administrator. But we need your help to push CITES in the right direction to save monkeys before it’s too late.
Crime Flourishes, While Macaque Numbers Plummet
CITES has in hand a wealth of evidence proving that the macaque trade in Southeast Asia is corrupt.
- In Cambodia, senior officials and top executives were criminally indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for smuggling wild-caught macaques into the U.S. under falsified captive-breeding documents.
- In Vietnam, records reveal biologically impossible monkey farm inventory numbers and monkey smuggling between Vietnam and China.
- In Laos, monkey farms continue to expand despite a 2016 CITES ban on the trade of long-tailed macaques from the country following allegations of monkey laundering. Their continued growth suggests that Laos is being used as a transit point for smuggled monkeys.
For years, monkey importers have operated under the false pretense of “captive breeding,” while knowing that wild macaques are ripped from forests and funneled into commercial breeding farms that they use to supply monkeys to laboratories.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world’s foremost authority on endangered species, recently confirmed the long-tailed macaque is endangered, citing a 50-70 percent population decline over the past three decades driven in part by the insatiable experimentation industry’s demand.
Still, CITES fails to act, shirking its duty to prevent trade from threatening the survival of species. Instead, it bows to political and industry pressure, allowing trade to continue—and monkeys to die—despite violations of its own treaty.