Fwd: Export of Monkeys from Nepal

[Guest guest]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

herojig <herojig

Jun 7, 2006 4:13 PM

RE: AMERICAN LABORATORIES TARGET NEPALESE MONKEYS

 

Here is a direct link to the same petition below, but online for your

signatures:

 

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/anpo/petition.html

 

Thanks!

 

PS>SHUBHOBROTO, CAN YOU POST THIS ENTIRE THREAD TO AAPN (AT) (DOT) COM? MY

EMAIL IS BOUNCING BACK FROM THE GROUP FOR SOME REASON. THANKS!

 

JIGS

 

*Jiggy Gaton*

Phoenix Studio

9851044033

 

*Subject:* RE: AMERICAN LABORATORIES TARGET NEPALESE MONKEYS

 

Thanks Shuboboto for that, but don't believe this is doing any good for the

Monkeys of Nepal. Especially when they are sent to anti-terror bio-testing labs

in the USA. We love our monkeys here; they are incarnate of Hindu Gods for

heaven's sake, and still they wind up looking like this under the hands of

American " Researchers " :

 

http://www.animalnepal.org/Campaign_MB.htm Currently a new national constitution

is being drawn up by a completely new parliament this month, and we at

www.animalnepal.org are hoping that humane animal legislation is part of that

re-write for Nepal. A petition is being prepared for delivery right now, so

emails regarding this issue can also be printed and delivered along with your

suggestions. Please see the document below for details. Respond to the group

with your comments and we will make sure the ministers read this as well. Ps.

The letter below was written by our founder and guiding light Lucia DeVries, she

can be contacted at the CC address above.

 

Thanks Lucia!

 

And thank you all so much, Jigme Gaton Chair, ANPO www.animalnepal.org Creator

*of Sanjeeb, The Nepali Space Monkey*

 

TEXT OF LETTER

======================================================================

 

To the Minister of Forestry Singha Durbar Kathmandu Dear Respected Minister, We,

a network of Nepalese and international animal welfare campaigners, first of all

want to thank your ministry and government for annulling the potentially harmful

National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. We request the authorities

to also annul the Wildlife Farming Act which enables individuals and

organisations to rear and breed wild animals under certain conditions. The act

allows the breeding of Nepalese monkeys and export to US research labs. Animal

Nepal has joined hands with the world's leading animal welfare agencies and

biologists in opposing this unethical kind of business.

The monkeys are to go to Washington where potentially dangerous and/or lethal

experiments will be carried out on them. The export of monkeys goes against the

spirit of CITES and does not benefit anyone but a handful of opportunists.

 

The primary objectives of your Ministry are to conserve the country's major

representative ecosystems, unique natural and cultural heritage, and give

protection to the valuable and endangered wildlife species. Now that you are

supporting the breeding and exporting of primates for biomedical research, these

objectives are being violated.

 

Monkeys are considered sacred and an important part of Nepal's heritage for a

number of reasons. Monkeys are highly intelligent animals and maintain

intricate social structures. They have complex emotional lives, caring for one

another and showing love to their babies as we humans do to our children.

Ethically, using monkeys in experiments that inflict mental and physical pain is

unacceptable and unconscionable.

 

Research illustrates that primate experimentation is no longer the " gold

standard " for study design. Past experience has demonstrated that

animal-modeled biomedical research yields results that cannot be safely applied

to humans. In addition, there are now many alternative research methods

(methods not using living animals) that are capable of providing clinically

relevant data.

 

We believe the decision is not in accordance with the Working Policy on Wildlife

Farming, Breeding and Research 2003, as communities living with monkeys do not

benefit from this development at all, and inflicting suffering to animals goes

against the spirit of the Constitution. If the Government is serious about

supporting animal conservation and helping farmer communities it should

implement long term, scientific solutions to monkey overpopulation, such as

birth control and farm land protection.

 

Nepal will not deserve credit for providing monkeys for biomedical research by

maintaining outdated, unreliable, and unethical methods for conducting studies.

We are now living in an era when ethics as well as state-of-the-art study design

are important considerations when doing research. The UK now maintains a

complete ban on great ape experimentation. Recently, large-scale public and

professional protests in France halted plans for a breeding facility for

experimental animals. India, after realising that its monkeys were used for

gruesome radiation experiments in the US, banned all primate exports in 1977.

Today, biomedical research conducted by US institutions continues to be

generally cruel and inappropriate.

 

Global trends indicate a strong movement towards the abolition of experiments on

primates. This is one of the reasons why it is increasingly difficult for

American research centers to find sufficient research primates. However, an

increasing number of primates are needed by the US.

American centers try to find loopholes in the world's legal animal rights

provisions, and in Nepal (one of the few countries in the world still largely

without such legislation) it has found ideal working ground.

 

We strongly request the Nepalese government to demonstrate its commitment to

enlightened and ethical research practices by halting (breeding facilities for)

biomedical research on Nepalese monkeys and implement legislation to prevent

such developments from reoccurring.

 

Thanking you for kind cooperation, On behalf of Animal Nepal and Monkey Business

Campaign Network, Jigme Gaton Jessy Rai Roselle Prisno Lucia de Vries

======================================================================

END OF LETTER

 

** aapn [aapn ] *On Behalf Of

*

*Sent:* Wednesday, June 07, 2006 12:27 AM

*To:* aapn

*Cc:* rob

*Subject:* AMERICAN LABORATORIES TARGET NEPALESE MONKEYS

http://www.livescience.com/imageoftheday/siod_060605.html *New Source For Lab

Monkeys*

 

Rhesus macaque monkeys from India have helped scientists develop treatments for

many diseases, but researchers are now faced with a critical shortage of the

primates in the laboratory. A new genetic study suggests that rhesus macaques

in Nepal might provide a suitable alternative in work to develop vaccines

against diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

 

India banned the export of all Rhesus macaques in 1978, which lead to the

current shortage. Although researchers have imported macaques from China for

sometime, scientists have noticed a number of behavioral and physiological

differences in disease progression between animals from the two countries.

The rhesus macaque is abundant in many countries and is not considered an

endangered species.

 

Finding a suitable replacement for current lab monkeys is important as macaques

of Indian origin have been used for more than half a century in biomedical and

behavioral research. Rhesus macaques have contributed to the discovery of

vaccines to prevent diseases such as polio and yellow fever and are one of the

most widely used primate models for AIDS-related research.

 

Randall Kyes, a primatologist at the University of Washington, and colleagues

compared blood from 21 Nepali rhesus macaques living at a temple site in

Kathmandu to samples from more than 300 Indian- and Chinese-origin rhesus

macaques. The researchers analyzed DNA genetic variations across 17

chromosomes. They also looked for the presence of genes that are known to

influence immunity and the rate of disease progression in the animals, including

one that is present in Indian rhesus macaques but not in the Chinese ones.

 

To facilitate the use of rhesus macaques in research while ensuring the

conservation of Nepal's naturally occurring rhesus populations, the Nepali

government enacted a policy in 2003 stipulating that only captive-bred animals

may be used for scientific research. An agreement between the Nepal

Biodiversity Research Society and the Washington National Primate Research

Center was signed in September 2003.

 

" This program will not harm the natural populations because we will establish

the self-sustaining breeding colony with a relatively small number of animals

that will be acquired from areas of known human-monkey conflicts, " Kyes said.

" In Nepal, this conflict is caused by monkeys that raid staple crops such as

sweet potatoes and corn. Crop raiding is prevalent in many areas in Nepal and

in the last five to 10 years there are many instances of local people seeking to

solve this problem by chasing or killing macaques. "

 

A captive-breeding facility is now under construction, and researchers hope to

establish a breeding colony within 12 months. One of the goals of the program

will be to address some of Nepal's most pressing health concerns, which include

HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and malaria.

 

The study, which was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, is

detailed in the current issue of the *American Journal of Primatology*.