Activists Demand Ban On Nepal Monkey Exports

by Maria A. Schulz

A slew of activists are joining forces to call world-wide attention to the agreement between the Nepalese government and a local non-governmental organization (NGO), the Natural History Society of Nepal (NHSN), to breed thousands of rhesus monkeys for supply to U.S. laboratories.

According to the agreement, the Nepalese government will supply 150 monkeys to the U.S. as soon as NHSN establishes the basic infrastructure to breed them.

The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) is responsible for establishing the breeding program in Kathmandu, which it launched in 2001. The WaNPRC also supports programs in Indonesia and Russia.

Animal rights activists say the U.S. annually requires over 14,000 monkeys for research.

"This is not a conservation effort that will benefit the local community or bio-diversity," said Prahlad Yonzon, the president of Resources Himalaya, an NGO working to promote wildlife conservation.

"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," he explained.

Activists have demanded an immediate halt to the breeding and capture of animals for export.

"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," said Lucia de Vries, a Kathmandu-based Belgian journalist who is busy mobilizing animal rights groups in Nepal and around the world.

"The government can earn up to $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," de Vries said.

Two years ago the private Natural History Society (NHS) in Kathmandu proposed sending monkeys to foreign labs, but dropped the proposal after an uproar ensued led by conservation activists, particularly the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation.

A key ally in the movement to save the monkeys is the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), which has asked the Nepalese government to prevent monkey-breeding labs from being started in the first place.

Animal rights activists are concerned that Nepal's decision to allow the export of their monkeys will open the floodgates to export Nepalese monkeys and other animals to countries like Japan and Germany for medical research.

A number of countries have banned such research since many institutions are finding alternatives to the use of non-human primates for research purposes.

However, some researchers still claim that primates are 'essential' to medical research.especially as they study such diseases as AIDS, asserting that research on primates has led to major contributions in the fight against cancer, as well as in dental treatments and the treatment of malaria.

De Vries, who is also involved with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/Nepal, claims that the U.S. is looking for lab monkeys to conduct bio-terrorism experiments.

"The U.S., keen to conduct bioterrorism experiments on primates, is desperate for lab monkeys, which is why they turn to countries with weak legislation and a willingness to sacrifice its precious wildlife, such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and lately, Nepal," said de Vries.

Rhesus macaques are the subject of choice for many biomedical and behavioral research laboratories mainly because of their willingness to breed in captivity.

But these monkeys are often caged in solitary confinement, which leads them to develop self-mutilating habits like biting their own bodies, hair-pulling, and repetitive motions.

Nepal's neighbor, India, banned the export of rhesus monkeys in 1977. China is the largest exporter of monkeys for bio-medical research, while the U.S. is the biggest importer.

Yonzon, a noted biologist, thinks the answer to whether or not monkey exports should be allowed is clear.

"We should never allow Nepal's monkeys to be used for bio medical research," he said.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.