Despite Documented Population Collapse, Fish and Wildlife Service Refuses to Consider Protections for Long-Tailed Macaques: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
July 14, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Chief  Science Advisor for primate experimentation,  Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) 90-day finding that PETA’s petition to protect long-tailed macaques under the Endangered Species Act does not present substantial information warranting further review, despite evidence of severe population declines and the continued removal of monkeys from the wild for the global laboratory trade:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision defies both evidence and common sense. In 2025, the world’s leading conservation authority, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, assessed long-tailed macaques as Endangered, concluding that their populations had already declined by 50–70 percent over the past three generations and are projected to decline by another 50–70 percent over the next three generations. Every year, tens of thousands of long-tailed macaques are shipped to U.S. laboratories, and the FWS’s own investigations show that illegal capture from the wild is likely helping fill those cages. If evidence of a documented population collapse, combined with ongoing exploitation and illegal trafficking, isn’t enough to warrant a closer look, it’s clear that the agency chose not to see what was right in front of it.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.