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.