USDA turns a blind eye and prompts a complaint from PETA
For immediate release:
September 21, 2022
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Houston – Following tips from whistleblowers, PETA has uncovered evidence that a monkey importer owned by lab supplier Inotiv – the same company that owns Envigo and its notorious beagle breeding facility that is being closed – transported more than 1,000 animals last month, endangered Monkeys to the US on two airlines not registered with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in apparent violation of the Federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
In response, PETA filed complaints with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Inexplicably, APHIS silently registered one airline after the fact and apparently did nothing about the other. That’s why PETA is asking Jennifer Lester Moffitt, USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, today to investigate APHIS’ failure to enforce the AWA. PETA urges them to revoke Inotiv’s monkey breeding licenses.
“Inotiv couldn’t take care of the beagles it bred and sold to labs, so it’s not surprising that the company appears to have paid airlines that illegally transported monkeys,” said Kathy Guillermo, PETA’s senior vice president. “The USDA’s apparent failure to comply with the law regarding the importation of monkeys involved in the wildlife trade poses a major disease risk.”
On September 1, Maleth Aero transported hundreds of long-tailed macaques — a species of monkey recently listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature — from Asia to Houston for Inotiv. On September 8, PETA told APHIS that the airline was unregistered, as required by federal law. The following day, despite his flagrant violation, Maleth Aero was registered by the Primate Transport Authority.
APHIS also hasn’t responded to PETA’s Aug. 23 complaint, which reported that Hainan Airlines — also unregistered — imported nearly 1,000 monkeys for a second Inotiv-owned facility in Texas.
Long-tailed macaques are now considered part of the international wildlife trade to US laboratories, in large part due to their capture and exploitation, where they are maimed, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilized in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, psychologically tortured and killed . Monkeys caught in the wildlife trade and destined for US laboratories can transmit Ebola-Reston virus, tuberculosis, malaria, herpes B, monkey hemorrhagic fever virus, deadly diarrhea, and other pathogens and diseases that can spread to humans .
PETA – whose motto is partly that “animals aren’t ours to experiment with” – opposes speciesism, a worldview dominated by humans. For more information on PETA’s investigative news gathering and reporting, visit PETA.org or continue to follow the groupTwitter,FacebookorInstagram.
