‘MONKEYS’ ASK UNITED AIRLINES TO PLACE LAB-BOUND PRIMATES ON THE ‘NO-FLY LIST’

Carrier Continues to Deliver Animals to Terrifying Futures and Painful Deaths

For Immediate Release:
19 October 2012

Sydney – Wearing monkey masks and holding signs that read, “United Airlines: Stop Monkey Cruelty”, members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia will gather outside the Sydney office of United Airlines on Saturday. PETA’s point? That unlike Qantas and other major airlines, United refuses to commit to a policy to ban the shipping of primates bound for painful and deadly experiments in US laboratories:

When:     Saturday, 20 October, 12:30 pm
Where:    Outside United Airlines offices, 10 Barrack Street, Sydney

“By shipping primates to laboratories, United is just as guilty of terrorising and killing these animals as the experimenters who wield the drills and scalpels”, says PETA Australia Director of Campaigns Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on United to bring its policies in line with the airline industry’s overwhelming opposition to this bloody trade.”

Almost every major airline in the world – including Qantas, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, US Airways, Air China, China Southern Airlines, TAM Airlines, Hainan Airlines, El Al Airlines and dozens of others – refuses to take any part in this violent industry and prohibits the transportation of primates to laboratories. However, a shrinking group of airlines – including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Vietnam Airlines – continues to profit from animals’ misery by transporting monkeys destined for US laboratories.

The traumatised monkeys are crammed into small wooden crates and transported in the backs of trucks and the dark and terrifying cargo holds of planes – often on passenger flights, just below unsuspecting customers. In January, Air France cancelled a shipment of 60 monkeys from the African island of Mauritius to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, a notorious laboratory in the US, after PETA US exposed the plan and launched a vigorous social-media and e-mail campaign to end it.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.au.

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