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.

Update:

We have two hot developments to report in PETA's campaign to expose and end the abuse of animals in cruel and archaic U.S. military medical training drills: Following complaints filed by PETA about the abuse of goats seen in a shocking undercover video, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited military trauma training contractor Tier 1 Group for violating the Animal Welfare Act, and the Virginia Beach Zoning Administration (VBZA) has warned the owner of the property where the training allegedly took place that these exercises are not permitted there.

Originally posted July 27:

Teaching Heartlessness

In April, PETA released the video footage taken by a whistleblower during a trauma training session for members of the U.S. Coast Guard. The video showed course instructors with Tier 1 Group repeatedly cutting off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, stabbing the animals with scalpels, and cutting into their abdomens to pull out their organs as they twitched, moaned, and kicked. Veterinarians who viewed the video confirmed that these are signs that the goats were not adequately anesthetized and were likely feeling pain.

The video also showed a course instructor from Tier 1 Group who cheerfully whistled as he cut the legs off goats as well as Coast Guard participants who joked about writing a song about mutilating the animals.

Intolerable Cruelty

At the time the video was released, PETA filed a number of complaints with authorities, and two of these agencies have now taken disciplinary action against parties responsible for the training. (A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into PETA's complaint is ongoing.)

The USDA citation for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act was issued because of Tier 1 Group's failure to give adequate anesthesia to the goats who were stabbed and cut into. This is a repeat violation, as Tier 1 Group was cited by the USDA for a similar violation last year.

The USDA's citation of Tier 1 Group for failing to anesthetize animals properly during invasive procedures is made even more alarming by the fact that just days after the USDA citation, the U.S. Navy awarded Tier 1 Group a contract worth nearly $2 million to conduct 24 trauma training exercises on live pigs. A company that has violated federal animal welfare law should not be rewarded with millions of tax dollars.

The VBZA letter not only warned that such exercises aren't permitted but also notified the property owner that legal action may be pursued against him if such unauthorized activities are conducted on the land in the future. These unlawful training exercises have taken place there for years, but officials have now made it clear that they must not occur there ever again.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA and its dedicated supporters—including military veterans Oliver Stone and Bob Barker—in urging the military to replace these cruel animal laboratories with humane and advanced human-patient simulators.