We're delighted to announce a crucial victory in PETA's AirCruelty campaign. This morning, China Eastern Airlines informed PETA that as of March 1, 2013, it will no longer ship primates to laboratories to be used in experiments!  

This ends the export of monkeys from China for use in laboratories! Prior to this exciting development, the majority of primates imported into the United States for experimental use were from China—in 2012, more than 10,000 primates destined for U.S. laboratories came from China. After both China Southern and Air China stopped primate shipments for experiments following pressure from PETA, China Eastern was left as the sole transporter of monkeys from that country to laboratories. Its compassionate new policy means that animal experimenters are left without a single airline to transport primates from China and PETA has now been successful in shutting down this market.

In recent months, PETA had stepped up pressure on China Eastern by encouraging our members and supporters to contact the airline via phone and e-mail. More than 100,000 of you took action. (Thank you!) Local activists with Empty Cages Los Angeles and other groups also helped increase pressure recently by conducting protests at China Eastern offices around the world.

What You Can Do

This is an important advance in keeping primates away from experimenters, but PETA won't rest until these smart and sensitive animals are safe once and for all—and we hope you're in it for the long haul, too! Please urge the last three remaining holdouts to follow China Eastern's example and adopt a formal policy prohibiting the transport of primates destined for laboratories.

Following a vigorous PETA campaign, Air China has confirmed that it's joining nearly every other airline worldwide by refusing to transport monkeys to laboratories. The airline's decision comes less than 24 hours after PETA asked its Facebook and Twitter followers to call Air China Cargo's main office at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and demand that the airline stop shipping primates to laboratories—a move that prompted thousands of phone calls to the company.

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Straighten Up and Fly Right

PETA's work to bring about this policy change dates back to last year and has included pleas to company officials, complaints to the government, phone and email protests and a demonstration at Air China's office at Los Angeles International Airport. Last month, PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after a laboratory-bound monkey escaped aboard an Air China flight. The USDA cited the airline, China's largest and their flagship carrier, for violating federal animal welfare laws and warned that subsequent violations could result in civil penalties or criminal prosecution for Air China.

This victory is also due to the thousands of members and supporters who responded to PETA's action alert—resulting in at least 24,000 e-mails to Air China's offices around the world—and to everyone who flooded Air China's offices at JFK airport with calls asking the airline to stop shipping monkeys to laboratories.

China is the source of more than 70 percent of monkeys imported to the U.S. for use in cruel experiments—and with Air China no longer participating in this bloody trade, experimenters will find it harder to get their hands on more victims.

What You Can Do

There's still more work to be done! Please take a minute now to urge the tiny handful of airlines that still transport monkeys to laboratories to join Air China and its peers in adopting a policy against transporting primates destined for experiments.

In response to a complaint filed by PETA in May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Air China for violating federal animal welfare laws. PETA's filing stemmed from an incident in which a monkey being shipped to a laboratory escaped from his cage during an Air China passenger flight at New York's JFK International Airport. The monkey was part of a shipment of more than 100 macaques, crammed four to a crate, who were headed to notorious South Carolina–based laboratory supplier and experimentation facility Alpha Genesis, which itself has been cited for 14 violations of federal animal welfare laws over the last two years, including violations for socially isolating monkeys and confining them to tiny barren cages.

Careless and Cruel

Air China was cited not only for transporting the monkey in an unsecured enclosure but also for handling monkeys in a way that might cause them harm—the tread mark of a shoe was found on the damaged crate, indicating that someone may have kicked or stepped on it. Air China was also cited one month prior when a laboratory-bound monkey sustained injuries after being transported in an enclosure with dangerously sharp edges.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA in calling for Air China to join nearly every major domestic and international airline—including American, Delta, China Southern, Hainan, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, El Al, and dozens of others—in refusing to transport primates to laboratories, where they are caged, tormented in painful experiments, and then killed.