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Campaign Unavailable We're sorry, this alert is no longer available. If you would like to learn more about ways you can take action, please visit PETA's Online Community.The short explanation of this alert was: The world's primates urgently need your voice today. Every year, tens of thousands of nonhuman primates—many of whom are captured in the wild or purchased from filthy, crowded breeding facilities overseas--are imported into the United States for use in cruel experiments that are often deadly. Primates are confined to cramped crates and are loaded into the cargo holds of passenger airplanes, enduring flights that may cover thousands of miles and that may last 48 hours or more. Death during these flights is not uncommon. Each year, upon arrival at airports, animals are found to have died from hypothermia, dehydration, and diarrhea. Although captive-primate-breeding centers have been established in the United States, unscrupulous animal-supply companies increase their profit margins simply by capturing monkeys in the wild. In 2005, animal-testing conglomerate Covance imported more than 12,000 monkeys into the U.S . Such financial gain to private companies comes at the expense of public safety risks, as imported monkeys have been documented to carry an array of dangerous viruses, such as West Nile, hepatitis B, Shigella, herpes, and Ebola—which are transmissible from monkeys to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has banned the importation of primates as pets because of the significant public health risk that they pose and because of concern about the potential of a global epidemic. But the CDC has conveniently looked the other way at the very same risks associated with importing primates for use as "research tools." Please contact Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, director of the CDC, today and ask her to extend the present ban on the importation of primates as pets to include primates who are intended to be used in experiments. Thank you for your compassion for animals and for your willingness to act. Please send polite letters to: Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, Director Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Rd. Atlanta, GA 30333 404-639-7120 404-639-7171 (fax) vjn1@cdc.gov If you would like to view details on this alert, please visit here. |
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