Enviros expose lab monkey business

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

 

 

Enviros expose lab monkey business

 

Probably no one has ever mistaken th e

National Geographic Society for an

antivivisection society--but one winner of the

2008 National Geographic Photo Contest, " Caged

monkeys await their fate at a medical laboratory

in Hubei Province, China, " by Li Feng, was an

image of a sort familiar to antivivisectionists.

The photo depicted dozens of small macaques in

shopping bag-like transportation cages seemingly

fashioned from chicken wire.

" The judges liked that this image

subverts the usual romanticized approach to

wildlife photography and more accurately reflects

the fate of many of the world's animals, "

reported The National Geographic. " The sneaker

at the top provides scale and injects a human

being into the scene; the anonymity of the

wearer suggests concealment and complicity. The

structure of the cages, the horror of the

captivity, the crowded composition, and the

claustrophobic tension all add up to a sad and

compelling photo. "

The conservation mainstream was also

recently awakened to the depletion of wild monkey

populations in Southeast Asia to supply Chinese

laboratories by the work of the Earth Journalism

Network, a training project headed by Thai

Society of Environmental Journalists founder

James Fahn.

After nine years as a reporter and editor

on environmental beats for the Bangkok Nation,

also reporting for Newsweek and The Economist,

and a stint doing environmental program

development for the Ford Foundation, Fahn,

former CNN environmental reporter Gary Strieker,

and Sierra Club president Larry Fahn--James

Fahn's cousin--formed EJN in 2006. Exposés of

monkey trafficking in Vietnam, Laos, and

Cambodia were among their first efforts. Five

in-depth articles produced by Vietnamese,

Laotian, and Cambodian journalists with EJN

support were distributed in 2007 and early 2008

by half a dozen Southeast Asian newspapers and

more than two dozen news web sites.

The EJN investigation produced further

hints that wild-caught monkeys are moving through

China to the U.S., as ANIMAL PEOPLE indicated

might be happening in a July/August 2007 cover

feature, based on a statistical analysis of

laboratory monkey sources and demand.

The EJN investigation started in May

2007, according to James Fahn, after " a group

of journalists affiliated with the Vietnam Forum

of Environmental Journalists approached EJN with

a proposal to support their research into the

alleged smuggling of long-tailed macaques between

Cambodia and Vietnam, using what appeared to be

false Laotian permits as cover. "

The EJN-supported findings first appeared

in Vietnamese newspapers in October 2007,

reaching the U.S. in translation several months

later.

The Vietnamese project originators were Quoc Dung

of Tien Phong, Phuong Lieu of Dong Nai, and

Phuong Thao of Nhan. The primary authors of the

Cambodian material were Bun Khy, Reasmei

Kampuchea, and Kompong Thom. The Vietnamese

environmental group PanNature provided a

translated transcript to EJN that was edited

before publication in English by Marty Bergoffen

and James Fahn.

" Located in a remote place near Cambodia, in

Vietnam's southwestern Tay Ninh province, the

wildlife breeding farm owned by Tan Hoi Dong Co.,

Ltd. is well known in Vietnam as one of the

first in Vietnam to obtain certification " by the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species, " the series opened. " But it is also an

essential transit site for the most sophisticated

and largest trans-border wildlife trafficking

network in Vietnam up to now. "

Two Vietnamese companies, Trung Viet and

NAFOVANNY, exported at least 2,700, 4,300, and

2,636 macaques to the U.S. in 2004-2006.

Trung Viet founder Tran Quy, the EJN team

reported, is also director of Tan Hoi Dong Co.,

and is now a partner of Primate Products Inc. of

the U.S. in building an $8 million laboratory to

do stem cell research on primates in Tay Ninh

province.

NAFOVANNY has operated in Vietnam for 10 years,

the EJN team learned, and is 40% owned by the

Vietnamese government, but is " majority-owned by

VANNY, a Hong Kong company. "

Trung Viet initially tried to start a macaque

breeding farm in 2003, in Cat Ba National Park

in northern Vietnam, but this was blocked

because the park was under consideration to be

named a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Trung

Viet had already imported 5,000 macaques. When

the Cat Ba scheme failed, Trung Viet sold the

macaques to NAFOVANNY, the EJN team recounted.

This was the beginning of a quiet partnership,

EJN continued. While NAFOVANNY has been able to

import fewer than 1,000 macaques per year from

Cambodia, Trung Viet was able to import as many

as 21,853 in 2004-2006.

The EJN team found numerous discrepancies between

Vietnamese paperwork and the data that Vietnam

eventually provided to CITES about the macaque

traffic.

Most notably, they found that " the whole set of

documents allowing Xay Savang Co., of Laos, to

export 80,000 wild animals to Trung Viet Co., was

confirmed as fake by Thongphath Vongmany, the

Vice Director of the Vietnamese Forestry

Department. "

These documents enabled the export to Vietnam of

7,000 monkeys, 13,000 wild-caught snakes, and

60,000 wild-caught turtles.

The monkeys went to Trung Viet.

The paperwork appeared to have been altered from

a permit originally issued in April 2004 for the

transit of 1,450 monkeys from Malaysia through

Vietnam to Laos.

" Chinese companies prefer to buy monkeys

from Trung Viet over other networks, " the EJN

team reported, " because only Trung Viet can

obtain so-called 'legal' permits. In many

cases, " the EJN team continued, " Trung Viet was

not able to supply enough monkeys to fulfill the

permits. By purchasing the excess permits from

Trung Viet, the Chinese could convert smuggled

monkeys from other sources into legal ones. This

is reported to be the trick used by Tran Quy,

who established wildlife farms to make illegally

imported monkeys from Cambodia and other

South-East Asian countries appear to be legally

bred. "

 

Cambodian captures

 

" Investment companies have set up monkey

breeding farms at over 10 sites in Cambodia, "

the EJN Cambodian team found. " It is suspected

that these breeding efforts are phony, resulting

in a serious loss of wild Cambodian monkeys. "

For example, the Cambodian Ministry of

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries authorized a

company called the Golden China Group to buy or

catch 5,000 adult monkeys, the EJN team

reported. Instead of trying to capture monkeys

themselves, the Golden China Group " just set up

places to buy monkeys from local people, " the

EJN team found.

Cambodian regional environment Department

chief Heng Huot told the EJN team that " The

number of crab-eating monkeys in the inundated

forests surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake has gone

down by 70% to 80%, " since the laboratory monkey

supply companies became locally active.

Locals typically " force the monkeys onto

one or two trees by cutting down the surrounding

trees. Then, they spread nets around the trees

to catch the monkeys, " the EJN investigators

learned. This accelerates deforestation and

human encroachment on wildlife habitat.

" Although the companies have been buying

monkeys for three to five years " the EJN team

observed, " they do not seem to catch enough of

them, " hinting that the quotas may be ignored

wherever possible.

Reported the EJN investigators, " A

Forestry Administration official said there was

corruption at all of the monkey farms, even

though each farm has been inspected by Forestry

Administration officers. In an announcement

issued by the ministry, the official states

that, 'Raising and breeding crab-eating monkeys

is aimed at producing baby monkeys for export.'

But the companies have secretly bought and

exported adult monkeys without following the law. "

The Golden China Group, " which recently

transferred its license to Angkor Primates Centre

Inc., " EJN said, has as many as 10,000 macaques

housed at each of two Chinese-supervised farms.

Another two farms are operated by the Mony

Company, with 3,000 to 10,000 monkeys each. A

third firm, the Chhang Huor Company, reportedly

has 7,000 monkeys.

A Forestry Administration official who

visited the Golden China Group monkey facilities

in Shenzhen, China at company expense told the

EJN team that, " In Shenzhen province, there are

farms with tens of thousands of monkeys, most of

whom are suspected to have been imported from

Cambodia. He said the company explained that it

was not true that they exported monkeys to China

so that their brains could be eaten. "

According to the unnamed official, " The

company explained there was a single monkey whose

brain was eaten alive. It said they were only

raising the monkeys for export to the U.S. for

use in laboratories. "

The rumor about the monkeys being sent to

China to be eaten, gruesome as it is, appears

to be part of the cover for the traffic. U.S.

law prohibits importing wild-caught monkeys for

research. And neither crab-eating nor rhesus

macaques, the species most often sold to U.S.

labs from China, may be legally hunted or

captured from the wild within China. Importing

macaques nominally for consumption may provide an

opportunity for " monkey-laundering, " since a

monkey who has purportedly been eaten could

disappear from any existing records, yet perhaps

be resurrected as " captive-bred " by a monkey

broker, and therefore legal for use in breeding

or export.

A case of illegal monkey capturing

reported in February 2008 by the Phuket Gazette

hinted at the possible existence of a similar

trade running from Thailand to South Korea. Arun

Kertphetch, 38, was arrested in the act of

capturing monkeys at the Wan Village Monkey

Forest, a local tourist attraction. Two alleged

confederates escaped but were sought by police.

The suspect claimed to be just their driver.

" Police collected as evidence two monkey

cages, 20 nets, a selection of various traps,

hunting equipment, and nuts and some bananas,

which were used as bait, " the Phukett Gazette

said, adding that " Arun said that he overheard

the other two men saying that they would catch

monkeys and export them to Korea " to be eaten.

However, while dogs and cats are eaten

in Korea, monkey-eating is not common there,

and has historically been common only in the

parts of China that are directly north of

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and

Myanmar, more than 1,000 miles from the Korean

peninsula.

South Korea does, however, have a

booming biotechnology industry, which in recent

years has been importing macaques for lab use

from some of the same Shenzhen suppliers who sell

macaques to the U.S.

 

Malaysia involved

 

Malaysian natural resources and

environment minister Seri Azmi Khalid on February

2, 2008 told the New Straits Times that he has

decided against lifting a ban on exporting

long-tailed macaques, in effect since 1984.

Seri Azmi Khalid in August 2007 floated

the idea of selling nuisance macaques captured in

urban areas to China for laboratory use and human

consumption, but backed away from it after it

drew adverse public response.

Former Malaysian Wildlife and National

Parks Department chief Musa Nordin, who retired

in October 2006, admitted to Malaysia Star

reporters Hilary Chew and S.S. Yoga that he was

" indirectly involved " in a scheme to export as

many as 20,000 macaques per year to buyers

including the Kunming Primate Research Centre,

affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

" The center was set up in 2005 as a

research base for experiments against infectious

diseases and bio-terrorism, " Chew and Yoga

learned.

Seri Azmi Khalid said the export scheme

was cancelled because, " A study of 2,000

macaques in urban areas, which began several

months ago, found that 80% of them were

infected, " with diseases including tuberculosis,

malaria, hepatitis, and simian AIDS, and that

" Only half the remainder were suitable for

export. "

But an informant told the EJN team that

there is nonetheless a substantial traffic in

wild-caught macaques from Malaysia, who are

" anaesthetized, bound and gagged in order to keep

them silent, " and flown in containers labeled

" vegetables " to nations including Vietnam for

resale to China.

From e-mails posted by unnamed

" conservation experts " to a United Nations

Development Program discussion forum on wildlife

conservation in Vietnam, the EJN team identified

Indonesia as another apparent major conduit of

illegally wild-caught monkeys to the U.S., but

acknowledged that hard evidence is lacking.

Long-tailed macaque exports from

Indonesia have more more than doubled recently,

rising from 2,000 in 2000 to 4,100 in 2007, with

a 2008 quota of 5,100, according to ProFauna

Indonesia.

ProFauna Indonesia noted that this is

only one of many threats to the Indonesian

macaque population. Deforestation has reduced

habitat for all wildlife, forcing macaques into

adapting to urban dwelling. About 5,000 macaques

per year are killed as nuisances in Kalimantan

province, according to Profauna. As many as

3,000 a year are eaten in cities including

Jakarta, Medan, and Palembang, ProFauna

estimated, while about 50 macaques per month are

sold as pets at Javanese bird markets.

 

African monkeys

 

Monkey trafficking to laboratories has

resurfaced as an issue in parts of Africa, after

fear of importing diseases such as simian AIDS

and the Ebola and Marburg viruses inhibited buyer

interest for about 20 years.

Gerald Tenywa of the Kampala New Vision

disclosed in February 2008 that a company called

Navina Exports had used an expired permit to

export 300 monkeys to the Chumakov Institute of

Poliomyelitis in Moscow. The Uganda Wildlife

Authority had authorized Navina Exports managing

director Yekoyada Nuwagaba to export monkeys in

2007, however, and UWA acting chief Sam Mwandha

told Tenywa that Nuwagaba had been given verbal

permission to continue.

The export operation " was exposed, "

Tenywa wrote, " when primate trapper Ronald

Sendagire was arrested with 16 monkeys at Gerenge

on the shores of Lake Victoria. The monkeys were

loaded in sacks and cages. This attracted the

attention of residents, " who tried

unsuccessfully to stop the captures.

Demand rising

An especially dramatic indication of the

recent rise in laboratory demand for monkeys was

disclosed in February 2008 by Dave Howden of

Students for Transparency in Animal Research and

Testing at McGill University in Montreal. Howden

found that McGill University laboratories used

just 24 nonhuman primates in 2003, but used 268

in 2004, 664 in 2005, and 919 in 2006.

Obtaining the information via freedom of

information requests took Howden more than two

years, reported Jennifer Markowitz of The

McGill Daily.

Laboratory use of macaques has increased

worldwide partly because bioengineering has

increased the numbers of products that are ready

for testing before going on the market, and

partly because of intensified research about

biological agents which might be used as weapons.

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

protection organizations. We have no alignment

or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]