Update: In March, PETA reached out to Hainan Airlines, and representatives from the airline confirmed that its policy remains firm: It still does not ship primates to laboratories. In the written statement, Hainan Airlines representatives said that they "fully agree" with PETA on this issue and that they support our "effort in the protection of animal rights."

The following was originally posted on February 24, 2012: 

Exciting news! Two more air carriers, TAM and Hainan Airlines, have announced that they will no longer transport primates for use in cruel laboratory experiments! PETA and other animal protection organizations put the pressure on the airlines after it was revealed that they were recently handling shipments of monkeys to laboratories in North America.

Richard Fisher | cc by 2.0

Now we're that much closer to stopping the transport of primates for use in experiments once and for all—but we're not there yet.

How You Can Help Keep Animals out of Laboratories

Please continue to tell the few remaining airlines that ship primates to laboratories—including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, and Continental Airlines—that cruelty should be grounded.

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.

Some exhilarating news from our neighbors (aka "neighbours" or "voisins") to the north: The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) will allow Air Canada to ban shipments of primates destined for pain and misery in laboratories. 

This leaves United Airlines as the only North American airline—and one of the few left in the world—to continue this bloody business.)

Following pleas from PETA, other organizations, and members of the public, Air Canada first sought the CTA's permission for the ban last year, stating that the proposed ban was "both to align our policies with those of many other major international carriers and in response to widespread public concern." Following objections from animal experimenters, the CTA initially did not approve the ban and scheduled a hearing on the issue. PETA immediately filed comments as a "party of interest," which were included in the official record, in support of Air Canada's proposed ban.

The CTA just released its decision in this matter, ruling entirely in favor of Air Canada and against the animal tormenters. In its lengthy decision, the CTA pointed out that the airline had received "over 47,000 letters from the public protesting its practice of transporting non-human primates for research purposes" and that Air Canada "cannot ignore the overwhelming volume of letters in opposition to the transport of non-human primates destined for research."

What You Can Do

As the CTA decision makes clear, this victory was made possible because of the appeals of concerned people—including the almost 19,000 PETA supporters who took action through this website. That's why it's so critical to make sure that your voice is heard—please join PETA in urging the few remaining airlines still willing to ship primates to laboratories to stop contributing to this cruelty.

The photograph is shocking. Dead monkeys, piled high in garbage cans. If an ordinary picture is worth a thousand words, this one screams them in horror. Even so, everyone should see it because it deserves to become the image that immediately springs to mind when thinking about primates in laboratories and the airlines responsible for transporting them to their deaths.

A Waste of Lives

The photo comes from a new investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) documenting how Noveprim—a company owned in large part by Covance—has been killing off monkeys simply because they are not the size that experimenters desire. Noveprim abducts wild monkeys from their homes on the tiny island of Mauritius for breeding and sale to laboratories in the U.K. and the U.S.

The sight of the lifeless monkeys discarded like crumpled paper speaks volumes about the experimentation industry's absolute disregard for animals' lives. The monkeys were reportedly healthy, so at a minimum, Noveprim could have had the decency to release them back into the wild—but decency would likely be a hindrance to snatching and trafficking living beings.

Rationalizations Are the Real Rubbish

Air France is reported to be the only airline still shipping primates to laboratories from Mauritius. Earlier this year, PETA was successful in stopping one such shipment, and this new investigation underscores why Air France should ground these flights permanently.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA in urging Air France and other airlines that still ship monkeys who have been ripped from their homes to laboratories where they will be tormented and killed to wash their hands of the whole dirty—and deadly—business.

In response to a series of significant animal welfare violations and complaints filed by PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken the rare step of fining the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) almost $12,000 for repeated violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. ONPRC imprisons, sickens, terrorizes, and mutilates thousands of monkeys each year in experiments with impunity, so it's good to know that the facility will be punished for causing animals to suffer more by failing to uphold even minimum standards.

A Record of Recklessness

The violations, which took place in 2009, included the escape of nine monkeys from the facility as well as the deaths of five other monkeys from a variety of causes, including from dehydration, being injected with unapproved compounds, and improper procedures performed by an inadequately trained employee. Following the escape, PETA called on the USDA to investigate and issue a fine to ONPRC.

In 2007, PETA conducted a shocking undercover investigation, which exposed horrific laboratory conditions at ONPRC. The next year, the USDA issued an "official warning"—the precursor to a fine—to ONPRC. Internal documents obtained by PETA had revealed that a sick pregnant monkey died after being denied veterinary care, that a surgical sponge was left in a baboon—causing an abscess—and was discovered only after he was killed for an experiment, and that experimenters mistakenly performed surgery on the wrong monkey. After repeatedly finding negligence and callous disregard, federal investigators are finally speaking the only language that ONPRC understands: dollars and cents.

What You Can Do

Take a stand for the animals imprisoned at ONPRC. Ask the National Institutes of Health to stop funding cruel and useless nicotine experiments on animals at ONPRC and elsewhere.

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.

Percita|cc by 2.0

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.

PETA protesters wearing monkey masks and holding signs reading, "Deplane Monkeys," recently held demonstrations outside the Chicago headquarters of United Airlines and the U.S. headquarters of Air France in New York. PETA is urging the airlines to commit to a ban on shipping primates to laboratories, as almost every airline in the world already has, including Delta, American, US Air, and China Airlines.

No-Fly Zone

PETA demonstrators also dropped a banner from a busy overpass next to United HQ, generating a lot of views and picture-taking:

United Airlines, which recently acquired Continental Airlines, is now the last U.S. air carrier without a policy prohibiting the transportation of primates to be abused and killed in crude, painful, and archaic experiments in laboratories.

Think Flying Coach Is Tough?

The cruelty involved in laboratory experiments on primates and other animals should be self-evident: After hearing from PETA about the horrors that cats and dogs endure in labs, for instance, Nippon Cargo Airlines, which had been shipping dogs and cats from the United States to Japanese labs, implemented a worldwide policy against shipping any animals to labs.

When primates are shipped to laboratories, they're first separated from their families and locked inside dark, terrifying cargo holds for as long as 30 hours. Then they're delivered to facilities that will poison them, cut them up, and kill them. Many monkeys who are shipped to laboratories were first ripped from their homes in the wild.

Help Stop Primates From Being Shipped to Laboratories

Please join PETA in telling airlines that still transport monkeys to U.S. laboratories to adopt a policy against the transportation of nonhuman primates for use in experiments.

You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that all mammals need water to survive, yet this basic biology principle is apparently lost on the clever folks at Harvard. For the second time in three months, a monkey has died of dehydration at the Ivy League institution: On Sunday, an elderly cotton-top tamarin was euthanized at Harvard Medical School (HMS) after it was discovered that the monkey's cage had no water bottle, an inexcusable oversight that led the university to suspend new experiments at its New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC).

The monkey's death came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made public an inspection report that revealed three other incidents involving the neglectful endangerment of monkeys at the facility in the past three months, including another monkey's death. This recent series of deaths has prompted PETA to call on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to suspend all funding to HMS and NEPRC and to demand a refund of any grant money spent on activity that violated federal animal protection laws, which is required by federal grant guidelines.

Milo was imprisoned at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), a facility where PETA conducted a shocking undercover investigation

A History of Violations

The USDA has cited HMS and NEPRC for more than 20 violations of the Animal Welfare Act during the past two years, including the following incidents involving serious injuries and deaths:

• In January of this year, two primates became severely dehydrated and one died. In another incident, a primate suffered two broken bones when his leg was smashed in a heavy cage door. Another primate suffered serious foot injuries after he and others escaped from improperly secured cages.

• In December 2011, a staff member caught an escaped primate with a net, performed an imaging procedure on him, and upon returning the animal to his cage, discovered that he had died.

• In July 2011, a primate had to be euthanized after he was given an overdose of an anesthetic that caused acute kidney failure.

• In June 2010, a primate was found dead in a cage after it was run through a scalding-hot mechanical cage washer.

What PETA is asking for isn't unprecedented. Other universities, including the University of Connecticut and the University of Michigan, have had to return thousands of dollars in grant money after PETA and others uncovered animal welfare violations. After all, it seems only reasonable that our hard-earned tax dollars shouldn't be paying for activity that violates the law.

How You Can Help

While the recent deaths of monkeys at Harvard appear to have resulted from carelessness, HMS and NEPRC confine 2,300 other primates and deliberately commit unspeakable horrors against them, such as drilling holes into their skulls and subjecting them to cocaine addiction experiments. Ask the NIH to stop funding this cruelty at Harvard and elsewhere.

beggs|cc by 2.0

In the triumphant finale to a long, hard legal struggle over a suit filed by PETA and citizens of Guayama, Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts that the monkey-breeding facility built in Guayama by Bioculture, Inc., was constructed illegally and therefore cannot be opened for business!

The court also denied Bioculture's motion to reconsider the ruling. So, as Kathy Guillermo, PETA's vice president of laboratory investigations, put it, "The final nail is now in Bioculture's coffin, and the 4,000 monkeys and generations of their offspring who would have suffered and died for the company's profit have been officially spared."

Muchas gracias to everyone who helped put a stop to Bioculture's plan to capture monkeys from their homes in the wild, imprison them in cages, and then sell their offspring for use in painful and deadly experiments at notorious facilities such as Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Charles River Laboratories, and Covance. 

Now, let's put another nail in the nasty monkey-pimping-and-torture coffin. Click here to urge airlines that still transport nonhuman primates to U.S. laboratories for cruel experiments to cut out the monkey business.