Reports of Feds’ Backroom Deal on Smuggled Monkeys Prompts PETA Plea for Their Release

For Immediate Release:
July 10, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Frederick, Md. — In a letter sent today, PETA calls on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate reports that officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are planning to release ownership of more than 1,000 long-tailed macaques back to animal testing giant Charles River Laboratories, which allegedly imported them illegally from Cambodia.

Charles River is under federal criminal and civil investigation for possible violations of monkey-importation laws, following a multi-agency investigation into a criminal primate trafficking network in Cambodia. In 2022, eight Cambodian nationals were indicted and charged with violations of the Endangered Species and Lacey acts for illegally capturing monkeys from the forests, falsely labeling them as bred in captivity, and selling them to U.S. importers.

Charles River imported the monkeys in late 2022 and early 2023, but was prohibited from using them by FWS because the company could not prove the animals hadn’t been trafficked. PETA met with the agencies in 2023 and offered a plan for sanctuary placement for the monkeys, who remain caged.

“These monkeys were allegedly trafficked, exploited, and left to languish in limbo for years, and they belong in a sanctuary, not back in the hands of the company that brought them here,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “The feds must not make deals to allow Charles River to profit off the victims of the alleged crime, rather, they should compel the company to pay for their lifetime care in sanctuary.”

Last month, Keith Toomey, deputy assistant director for the Office of Law Enforcement at FWS, was found to have allowed thousands of dollars in excess pay for one of his agents, raising questions about who else he might bend the rules for.

PETA and Born Free USA have offered to help secure lifetime sanctuary placement for the monkeys, who apparently languish in barren steel laboratory cages while FWS inexplicably stalls. More than 72,000 PETA supporters have urged the agency to release the primates and compel Charles River to pay for the remainder of their lifetime care.

In nature, macaques live in large groups, with an intense focus on social relationships. Infant macaques are adored, and female macaques remain in their birth group for life. These family-oriented animals are captured from their natural homes in staggering numbers and funneled into the international wildlife trade before ending up in U.S. laboratories, where they are used in painful, deadly experiments that lack relevance to humans.

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.