Wild Pets and Laboratory Animals: Primates Endangered Species Handbook

Trade

Wild Pets and Laboratory Animals: Primates

All gibbons, tailless apes of the Hylobatidae family, are endangered, listed on Appendix I of CITES and as Endangered on the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Ten species are listed in the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Gibbons inhabit the rainforests of Southeast Asia, where they have declined as a result of logging and capture for the zoo and pet trades. They communicate in whoops and haunting songs that carry for miles in the forest, and they mate for life. Their long, spidery legs and arms give them great agility as they leap large distances between trees. Until the 1970s, thousands of gibbons were imported by U.S. zoos and laboratories. CITES Appendix I listing stopped this trade, but in Asia, they are still captured for the pet trade, and babies are used to pose for photos with tourists. This trade involves the killing of many mother gibbons in order to obtain a few baby gibbons, which are so poorly treated that most die within months. In Thailand, there were an estimated 1 million gibbons as recently as 1975, but only a fraction of that number survives today. Thai forests have become fragmented, and old growth, which most species require for habitat, is nearly gone. Thailand is a country that now has laws prohibiting logging and capture and sale of most native wildlife, but enforcement is very weak. Gibbons are sometimes used as mascots in bars and stores. This is often done in the evenings on busy streets, and the gibbons are given drugs to keep them awake. In Bangkok, Leonie Vejajiva has worked for 20 years to rescue these orphaned and mistreated gibbons. Some are abandoned by their owners when they grow too large, and others are confiscated by wildlife authorities. Vejajiva estimates that 20 mothers and 19 babies are killed to get one baby for sale. The gibbons in her care have been very traumatized and abused. One is missing a finger and had all his teeth filed down to the gums to prevent him from biting. Pileated Gibbons (Hylobates pileatus), native to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, are so endangered that 15,000 at most remain in the wild. Vejajiva has taken in many Pileated Gibbons, and one female had been owned by someone who put cigarettes out on her back and beat her for years. It has taken a long time for her to trust Leonie, but she remains angry and hates men. Leonie has seen her gibbons show great emotions and pine away when sad, and considers them extremely emotional and sensitive. The Thai government recently set aside a tract of 80 acres where confiscated gibbons can be kept in large, treed enclosures.

Other primates are captured for the pet trade throughout the tropics. Most countries have laws banning this practice, but it continues, nevertheless. In Vietnam, it is illegal to capture native primates, but baby macaques are commonly seen by the roadside, offered for sale by hunters who have shot the mothers. In cities, these pathetic, underfed and traumatized monkeys are kept in tiny, dirty cages and sold as pets to locals and tourists. Vietnam is exploiting its wildlife commercially on an unprecedented scale. Markets in Ho Chi Minh City and other cities offer many primates for sale, even including gibbons, and thousands are exported for the pet and laboratory trades.

In many countries, regulations ban importation of primates for the pet trade because the Public Health Services have deemed them to be a health hazard to humans. They can spread rabies and many respiratory diseases. Importation of primates for the pet trade was banned in Denmark in 1965; in the United States in 1975; and in Finland, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland during the 1960s and 1970s (Fitzgerald 1989). Pet monkeys are still occasionally seen advertised, however, and many are brought into the United States and other countries illegally by travelers to tropical countries.

In the 1950s, 15 million monkeys were exported annually from tropical countries for medical research, primarily to develop a polio vaccine, endangering a number of species. During the 1960s, many South American countries banned commercial exports of their wildlife, but exports of primates continued. Conservationists began protesting the enormous drain on wild primate populations, and humane organizations protested the cruel treatment they received. The U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 listed a number of species, banning their importation, but some countries continued to export primates for this trade. Laboratory dealers would switch from one species to another to continue high imports. The U.S. Congress enacted the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act in 1966 (later renamed the Animal Welfare Act) with standards for the care of monkeys and other animals used in research. When CITES came into force in 1975, the trade was restricted greatly. All primates are now listed on either Appendix I or II. By 1979, the world primate trade dropped to 65,000 per year (Fitzgerald 1989). In the 1980s, African monkeys and Asian macaques became the major laboratory primates. These animals were often subjected to extremely cruel and unnecessary experiments. American taxpayers financed hundreds of these through grants from the National Institutes of Health. Many laboratory monkeys are now bred in captivity, yet thousands continue to be captured for the laboratory animal trade.

Almost 50,000 primates were listed by the Department of Agriculture as used in research in U.S. laboratories in 1993, according to a study by the International Primate Protection League; 19,461 of these primates were used in research causing pain and distress alleviated by drugs; and 1,353 were used in experiments causing pain and distress not alleviated by drugs (IPPL News 1995). Many of these animals are endangered species such as Chimpanzees, kept in isolated, sterile cages and used in AIDS research.

There are approximately 1,500 Chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories. The Coulston Foundation is a facility that maintains hundreds of these intelligent primates, with a record of high mortality, poor care and more than 40 violations under the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. In May 2000, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) took title to 288 Chimpanzees. Coulston tried to get them back, and NIH decided to leave them in the facility prior to a final decision about their fate. During this period, one 10-year-old Chimpanzee died after "allegedly being left sick for days without receiving veterinary care" (AWI 2001). In spite of its record, NIH continues to award funds to The Coulston Foundation, preventing its bankruptcy (AWI 2001). The 600 Chimpanzees at this foundation need to be transferred to a sanctuary where they would receive needed veterinary treatment and compassionate care (AWI 2001).

Many laboratories have made public statements indicating that when they have completed research studies on these Chimpanzees, the animals will be euthanized. Humane organizations have loudly protested this, and campaigns are being waged to place these animals in spacious enclosures so that at least the last years of their lives will be spent without trauma. When the New York University Medical Center disbanded its animal research laboratory, it planned to donate its Chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation. Dr. Jim Mahoney, veterinarian for these primates, took it upon himself to place them in humane surroundings where they would never be experimented on again. At his own expense, even driving them to the centers in a special van, he found homes for 90 Chimpanzees in various rescue centers, including Primarily Primates in Texas and a center in Quebec where they could socialize in large areas with sleeping shelves, toys, soft blankets and jungle bars. One Chimpanzee who had never slept anywhere except the cold cement floor of his cage or felt a soft object, hugged a blanket, rolling in it in joy when he first entered the sanctuary. Jane Goodall encouraged this project and spoke of the need to treat these very sensitive animals with respect and kindness on a National Geographic Explorer program, Chimp Rescue, shown in November, 1998, which traced Dr. Mahoney's steps in rescuing the chimps as well as 100 monkeys.

The Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act, signed into law in 2000, will facilitate projects such as Dr. Mahoney's. It will provide $30 million from the budget of the National Institutes of Health to establish a national system of sanctuaries to provide for the long-term care of Chimpanzees no longer needed in biomedical research.