Monkey Transporter Slapped with Two More Animal Welfare Act Violations: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
April 6, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Reno –

Please see the following statement from PETA Chief Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding two new citations issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against trucking company JKL Secure Freight, also known as LR Transport LLC, for violating the Animal Welfare Act on three separate occasions, including twice failing to maintain valid health certificates after transporting monkeys across state lines, and failing to check on monkeys every four hours during transport as required:

JKL Secure Freight has proven time and again—10 times in the last four years, to be exact—that it cannot or will not comply with the minimum standards set by USDA regulations or animal welfare laws. Records PETA obtained from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette show that a January 8, 2025, shipment included monkeys imported from Mauritius, a country known for tuberculosis outbreaks. At least two animals at the university were positive for Shigella and were untreated before transport. Yet JKL couldn’t produce the required USDA health certificates, leaving no reliable way to know which animals were infected, where they were going, or who and what they may have exposed along the way. Experimenting on sick monkeys compounds their suffering while producing data that are even less reliable than those generated by flawed animal models in the first place.

JKL also failed to check on monkeys for nearly 20 hours during transport, a masterclass in neglect. That the company remains a go-to transporter for laboratory suppliers proves that the animal experimentation industry is dangerous to humans and other animals alike and must be shut down.

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.