DW-CA: “Canada urged to halt importation of monkeys…” in Montreal Gazette, 1/26/25

Canadians:

Saturday’s Montreal Gazette included a prominent article, page A4, titled, “Canada urged to halt importation of monkeys from Cambodia.”

It opens:

“Animal rights advocates are hoping a recent recommendation by the secretariat of an international trade agreement will push the Canadian government to halt imports of endangered monkeys from Cambodia to Canada for use in medical and pharmaceutical research. Thousands of live long-tailed macaques have been imported into Canada from Cambodia since early 2023….

“Last week, the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recommended that its standing committee call on all 185 countries that are signatories to the agreement to suspend trade in long-tailed macaques from Cambodia. Canada signed on to the agreement in 1974. The CITES standing committee will vote on that recommendation at its meeting on Feb. 3-8 in Geneva.”

And it includes:

“Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, senior science adviser in PETA’s laboratory investigations department, said it would be ‘outrageous’ for Canada to wait until the CITES process is complete before taking action. She claims it has been clear for years that certain countries are passing off wild monkeys as purpose-bred in order to meet the voracious international demand for primates in research.”

If the Gazette wasn’t on this, nobody would be thinking about it, so the paper truly deserves some encouraging responses. Check out the tips for writing to the paper and please weigh in, giving animals your voice, with a quick note sent to letters@montrealgazette.com .

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch