PETA is demanding that Air France stop their involvement in the flying of caged primates to laboratories for animal testing. What better way to do that than to dress up as monkey prisoners?
PETA is demanding that Air France stop their involvement in the flying of caged primates to laboratories for animal testing. What better way to do that than to dress up as monkey prisoners? While some would prefer to get their point across by writing strongly worded letters and waving the occasional protest sign, PETA have other ideas.
This Thursday, around thirty PETA supporters dressed in monkey masks and prison uniforms will be protesting outside the French Embassy in London. To emphasise their point, they will also be in cages, rattling on the bars to symbolise the suffering of the monkeys they want to save.
They are calling for change because Air France is the only major airline in the world that still ships primates to laboratories, and they believe that the conditions these animals live in and the experiments they become a part of are unacceptable. They claim that some come from squalid monkey farms, while others are “torn away from their families” in the wild.
Air France sent over 5,500 monkeys to laboratories in the US in 2013 and thousands more to laboratories across Europe, whilst making a profit. According to PETA, the frightened monkeys are shoved into wooden crates and transported inside cargo holds in complete darkness, where they sit terrified and traumatised awaiting their final “deadly” destination.
‘Lonely, traumatised and psychologically damaged’
“French diplomats and the public should know that Air France, France’s flag-carrying airline, is the last commercial airline still facilitating and profiting from the torture of highly intelligent and sensitive monkeys,” says PETA UK’s Kirsty Henderson.
PETA are naturally against all forms of animal testing, but testing on monkeys is a particularly sensitive issue, as they are intelligent and emotional creatures and very close relatives of ourselves.
“These animals are not only subjected to painful procedures but also deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, leaving them desperately lonely, traumatised and psychologically damaged,” says Henderson.
PETA claim that the primates are “caged, cut into, poisoned, crippled, deprived of food and water, infected with deadly diseases and killed.”
While some may feel that this is a little narrow minded when it comes to animal testing, their point about Air France still stands.
So, whether you are for or against testing on animals, you’ve got to admire PETA’s guts. If you want to see them at work, tell them off or hand out some bananas, go down the French Embassy in Knightsbridge on Thursday 21 August at 11am before the cages are removed and the monkeys have to flee.
What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.
Image:
[ Flickr / Eva Rinaldi ]
