Air Canada Wants Out of Monkey Business
Air Canada has been one of the few airlines willing to transport monkeys from inhumane overseas farms to vivisection laboratories in Canada.
But the airline has been under increasing pressure to join other airlines in refusing to carry this kind of “cargo.” Now Air Canada says it wants to get out of the monkey business, but that its hands and wings are tied. It needs permission from the Canadian Transportation Agency, and this government bureaucracy is dragging its feet.
There was worldwide outrage a year ago when Air Canada confirmed that it had flown 48 monkeys from breeding farms in China to Quebec. They were transported as cargo in cramped wooden crates. Animal welfare organizations said they had received a tip from a Pearson airport employee. Hundreds more monkeys are routinely shipped to the Oregon National Primate Center.
In 1998 the CTA ruled that Air Canada could not refuse to ship monkeys from the Wildlife Reserve of Barbados to The Primate Research Center.
International anti-vivisection organizations are mounting a campaign to persuade the Canadian government to get out of the way of this cruel business. Celebrity comedian Ricky Gervais is among those leading the campaign.
For more on this:
The Toronto Star is covering the news.
More about the campaign and a change.org petition is here.
And more about the dark business of the monkey trade is in this Zoe story.