The Cambodian Monkey Trade

In Cambodia, trappers illegally capture wild macaques. The trappers travel the swamps in boats looking for macaques in trees. Once spotted, one trapper hits the branches of the trees while another trapper holds a net in the water. In an attempt to escape from human harassment, the macaques jump from the trees into the water. Other macaques fall into the water when branches are chopped down. Once in the water, they are caught in nets. The trappers close each macaque individually in a net and stuff them under boards in their boats. For a lengthy period of time, the scared and traumatized monkeys suffer while enclosed in small dark areas under the boat during transport.

Trappers sell the captured wild monkeys to industrial factory farms. In the factory farms, the monkeys are bred and sold to research facilities. BUAV has video that shows the treatment of monkeys at Vanny Bio-Research, one of the many factory farms that breeds and sells wild monkeys to research facilities. The footage at Vanny Bio-Research shows macaques housed in conditions that fail to meet international animal welfare guidelines. Macaques are kept in small bare metal cages. Stressed from capture and psychologically tormented in cages devoid of any kind of enrichment, these animals live in a constant state of torment.

Factory farms such as Vanny Bio-Research sell the monkeys to research facilities. Thousand of monkeys a year are sold to research facilities around the world, including China, Japan, France and the United States. BUAV is appealing to the European Parliament/Commission to update regulations pertaining to monkeys used in animal research. Animals used in animal research that are obtained from the wild are called "F" source research animals. BUAV is issuing a proposal with the European Parliament/Commission to update regulations to ban the import of "F" source animals and animals bred from "F" source animals for use in research.

Visit the BUAV web site for additional information on the Cambodian monkey trade, to watch video footage of the capture of wild macaques in Cambodia, to view photos of macaques in the Vanny Bio-Research factory farm, and to learn ways that you can help stop the Cambodian monkey trade.