New Report Says ‘Legal’ Trade of Monkeys for Experiments is a Global Fraud: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
February 24, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding a new report from Sandy River Research, a group unknown to PETA that has compiled a detailed, thoroughly documented analysis of the global trade in monkeys. Unveiling the Dark Side of the Research Monkey Trade provides blistering evidence that the global trade in monkeys destined for laboratory experiments is rife with fraud that allows large corporations such as Charles River Laboratories to profit from emptying forests of endangered monkeys:

Sandy River Research’s report provides evidence of what PETA has said all along: The global trade in monkeys destined for laboratory cages is a fraud-driven, disease-ridden, black-market operation that thrives on the complicity of officials, depleting forests of endangered monkeys while fattening the wallets of corporations such as Charles River Laboratories. PETA urges all federal agencies with the authority and responsibility, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to take immediate action and stop this illegal trade. These agencies appear to have been turning a blind eye to the overwhelming evidence of this unlawful trade. By continuing to fail in their duty, they are not only enabling egregious cruelty and illegality, they’re also gambling with the next potential pandemic.

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.