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.

derekkeats | cc by 2.0

In a huge victory for vervet monkeys, U.S. military officials have confirmed that the Army is ending cruel and archaic monthly training exercises at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in which monkeys are poisoned with a drug overdose that makes them suffer from violent seizures in a crude demonstration of the effects of nerve-agent exposure. Instead of abusing terrified monkeys, Aberdeen—the only Army base in the country that uses animals for this training—will now use human patient simulators, just as every other military facility already does. The move follows months of vigorous campaigning by PETA.

PETA's campaign against the barbaric chemical casualty training exercises included a series of protests this week outside the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army. Supporters of this effort included veterans, physicians, active service members, and actor Woody Harrelson, who sent a letter on PETA's behalf to Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno. Many others have also been protesting at Army recruitment centers, flooding the offices of Army officials with e-mails and phone calls, and even gathering outside the homes of Army officials affiliated with the monkey lab. One PETA member even disrupted a speaking event last week by Aberdeen's commanding general, Nick Justice.

Please send an e-mail to Maj. Gen. Nick Justice to thank him for this compassionate decision and ask that he ensure that the transition to simulators be made immediately.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know, one protester got a swift response when he demanded change from U.S. Army Major General Nick Justice. While the ironically named military man was speaking in front of peers at a conference at the University of Maryland, a PETA member leapt up in front of the crowd and called Justice out for allowing cruel chemical casualty training exercises on live vervet monkeys:

At the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, where Justice is the commanding general, vervet monkeys are injected with severe drug overdoses, which cause them to seize, twitch, vomit, and even stop breathing. One trainee compared a monkeys' reaction to a Chihuahua "s***ting razor blades." The exercises are a medieval attempt at recreating the effects of a nerve agent attack on humans, but because the human response and the monkey response are quite different, trainees leave ill-prepared to handle such a crisis.

More enlightened U.S. military chemical casualty training programs use only sophisticated human-patient simulators that can be programmed to mimic actual human responses to a nerve agent attack.

You say you got a real solution? Well, you know, you can ask the White House to require Aberdeen Proving Ground to switch to superior human-patient simulators and save animal and human lives by adding your name to this petition.

Written by Michelle Sherrow