Canada has imported thousands of Cambodian-origin long-tailed macaque monkeys despite evidence showing these monkeys have been illegally smuggled out of Asia.
Charles River Laboratories, a pharmacological research company, was called out by the Canadian Association for Biological Anthropology (CABA) in late 2024 for importing thousands of macaques into Canada after the company was prohibited from using or selling multiple shipments of Cambodian monkeys in the United States.
For biomedical research, the norm is for experimentation to occur on monkeys that were born in captivity. This allows researchers to know the medical history of the primate.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for long-tailed macaques soared. China, a chief provider of these captive-born monkeys, had stopped exporting them. As a result, other countries rose to fill the demand. The source of these monkeys, however, were not always monkey farms.
For years, the practice of capturing wild macaques and mislabelling them as captive-bred has grown. This practice poses real risks for ecosystems in importing and exporting countries.
“Any scientist worth their salt knows you never use anything but a purpose-bred, captive-bred primate for your experiment,” said Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, a primatologist and the senior science advisor on primate experimentation for PETA.
Beyond the murky medical history of wild captured macaques, Jones-Engel said bringing in mislabelled wild macaques harms the population of an endangered species and could lead to importing countries bringing in zoonotic diseases from abroad.
Jones-Engel highlighted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration no longer requires animal testing for drugs to be distributed.
“What we have seen in the past three years is the absolute explosion of non-animal methods for screening new drugs,” Jones-Engel said. “In the industry, everyone has known for decades that what works in a mouse or a monkey or what is safe in a mouse or a monkey, 90 per cent of the time is not effective or safe in humans.”
Jones-Engel said there has been experimentation using 3D printed tissues or AI. She called this development a “brilliant upsurge” in the use of science to advance human health.
LISTEN: Who is fighting for the long-tailed macaques?
A Bloomberg documentary released late last year unpacked how smugglers would doctor paper work for wild macaques claiming they were captive-bred. The film won an Emmy in June.
While the documentary focused on how the U.S. was complicit in monkey smuggling, CABA has shared that Canada is involved in its fair share of monkey business.
On August 10, 2024, a plane chartered by Charles River Laboratories and carrying a cargo of 600 Cambodian-origin macaques landed in Montreal. This occurred despite the Canadian Transportation Agency not issuing a landing permit.
“The CEO of Charles River made an announcement that they were looking for ‘friendlier governments,’” said Jones-Engel. “It turns out that Canada was apparently one of those friendlier governments.”
CABA has called on the Canadian government to halt chartered flights by Charles River Laboratories that carry imported monkeys.
“We’re in the 21st century. We don’t need to rely upon a monkey trade that is steeped in illegality, cruelty and scientific inefficiency,” Jones-Engel said. “Canada is doing the dirty work for an American company… The lack of response from Canadian officials has been astonishing to us.”
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