Nepal Activists Say No Monkey Exports for Lab Tests

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Nepal Activists Say No Monkey Exports for Lab Tests

Keshab Poudel

OneWorld South Asia

02 February 2004

 

KATHMANDU, Feb 2 (OneWorld) - Animal rights activists are protesting against

an agreement between the Nepalese government and local nongovernmental

organization (NGO), the Natural History Society of Nepal (NHSN), to breed

thousands of rhesus monkeys, allegedly for supply to US laboratories.

 

According to the letter of intent, the government will deliver 150 monkeys

to the US as soon as NHSN establishes basic infrastructure to breed them.

Along with monkeys, the government has already permitted another NGO to

begin the commercial breeding of snakes.

 

Activists say the US annually requires over 14,000 monkeys for research.

They have demanded an immediate halt to the breeding and capture of animals

for export.

 

" This is not a conservation effort that will benefit the local community or

bio-diversity. This kind of breeding is purely for bio-medical research

where our monkeys undergo enormous suffering as they are observed for

physical and psychological responses to untested drugs, " protests Prahlad

Yonzon, the president of Resources Himalaya, an NGO working to promote

wildlife conservation.

 

A slew of protests are pouring in from across the world. " We have received

more than 300 petitions which we will hand over to the Nepalese prime

minister and the minister for Forests and Soil Conservation, " says Lucia de

Vries, a Kathmandu-based Belgian journalist who is mobilizing animal rights

groups in Nepal and abroad.

 

De Vries believes money is the only motivation. " The government can earn up

to US $300 per monkey for sale to American labs. We should not allow

Nepalese monkeys to die a slow and painful death there just for the sake of

enriching a few, " she says.

 

Another key ally in the Save-the-Monkeys-Campaign is the International

Primate Protection League (IPPL), which has posted an appeal on its site

(www.ippl.org) to protest the plans to exploit Nepal's primates. It has also

requested the Nepalese government to prevent monkey-breeding labs from being

set up.

 

Animal rights activists express concern that Nepal's decision will open the

floodgates to export Nepalese monkeys and other animals to countries like

Japan and Germany, for medical research.

 

The decision comes at a time when research institutions are increasingly

finding alternatives to the use of non-human primates in research, which is

why a growing number of countries have banned such research.

 

De Vries, who is also involved with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals/Nepal, alleges that the US is looking for lab monkeys to conduct

bio-terrorism experiments.

 

Reportedly, the West is scouring jungles in countries with weak legislation

and a willingness to sacrifice their precious wildlife, such as China,

Vietnam, Indonesia and, lately, Nepal.

 

NHNS expert Mukesh Chalise disagrees, " This is just propaganda by certain

vested interests. We applied to the ministry in accordance with Nepal's

rules and regulations. " Our intention is not to send our monkeys to death

but to use them for human benefits. "

 

Government officials defend the agreement, saying it is in accordance with

Nepal's recent Working Policy on Wildlife Farming, Breeding and Research

2003. The policy stipulates that the government can permit breeding of

endangered species and other common species for commercial purposes.

 

" There are clear guidelines for breeding, " says a senior official at the

Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.

 

Rhesus monkeys have lived alongside humans for centuries. Of late, they have

come into conflict with humans, leading to the trapping and killing of more

than 1,000 monkeys by farmers last year.

 

" But you cannot justify exporting monkeys on the ground that they are

destroying crops. People who live alongside monkeys have come to terms with

them, " says Yonzon.

 

Rhesus macaques are preferred subjects for biomedical and behavioral

research primarily because of their willingness to breed in captivity. But

often monkeys are caged in solitary confinement and develop self-injurious

habits such as biting their own bodies, hair-pulling, and repetitive

motions.

 

Monkeys and snakes aren't the only animals under threat. Ministry of Forest

and Soil Conservation spokesperson Mohan Prasad Wagle says the government

will facilitate the commercial breeding of other wildlife species like

crocodiles, black bucks, pheasants, barking deer, spotted deer, sambar deer,

hog deer and various kinds of birds.

 

After issuing permission, the government will provide seed animals to firms

which will commercially exploit them. There are different price tags for

different animals, ranging from US$ 80 for all kinds of birds to US$ 500 for

crocodiles.

 

This isn't the first time the Nepal government has landed itself in

controversy. Following vehement criticism from different environmental and

animal rights groups, it had cancelled a similar proposal two years ago.

 

The monkey is widely worshipped by Hindus as a devotee of Lord Ram. Along

with Hindus, Nepal's large population of mountain people, who recently

celebrated their new year, have declared 2004 the Year of the Monkey.

 

Nepal's neighbor India banned the export of rhesus monkeys in 1977. China is

the biggest exporter of monkeys for bio-medical research, while the US is

the biggest importer of primates.

 

" The division of international programs of the Washington National Primate

Research Center (WaNPRC) was established in 1999 to help direct, strengthen,

and expand the Center's international collaborations. The WaNPRC currently

supports two long-standing international programs in Indonesia and Russia

and a third, recently established in Nepal, " says De Vries.

 

Its Nepal program was formally established in 2001 in collaboration with

NHSN in Kathmandu. This program will support the breeding of rhesus monkeys

and facilitate collaborative research and educational/training opportunities

for Nepalese students and researchers, and assist with primate conservation

efforts in Nepal.

 

The IPPL reveals that the trade has increased greatly in recent years. In

1995, 9,158 primates were imported to the US.; in 2002 the figure was

18,856, an increase of 106 per cent.

 

Crab-eating macaques from Asia are by far the most heavily traded monkeys,

followed by rhesus and squirrel monkeys.