Pressure is mounting for the federal government to investigate Quebec’s importation of endangered monkeys for medical research after a U.S. investigation found the pharmaceutical giant significantly increased imports north of the border. are.
Animal rights activists, researchers and opposition politicians are raising concerns about animal welfare and potential public health risks over the influx of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, which the US says are illegally captured from the wild. It’s ringing the alarm.
The latest move comes from the federal NDP, which is calling on Ottawa to give “immediate attention” to the issue.
Investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida in November 2022 indicted eight people, including two senior Cambodian officials, on “multiple felonies for their role in introducing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.” The company and its associates have not been charged, and the company said it would fully cooperate with the U.S. investigation.
Three months later, Charles River Laboratories, a global giant based in Massachusetts, was issued a subpoena in the case and announced it would stop importing macaques into Massachusetts.
Around the same time, monkey imports from Cambodia to Canada skyrocketed dramatically.
Canada imported 4,789 live primates from Cambodia in 2023. That’s an increase of nearly 500 per cent from the previous year, according to Statistics Canada data.
According to StatCan, the import market value of the exotic animal jumped from $14.5 million in 2022 to more than $84.4 million the following year, an almost 600% jump.
Several researchers who monitor primate imports into Canada told The Canadian Press that, to their understanding, the only type of monkey being imported from Cambodia is the long-tailed macaque. All shipments from Cambodia in 2022 and 2023 were destined for Quebec. Quebec is home to a large campus in Montreal, where the Charles River Institute is the only facility in Canada.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, which oversees the commercial trade in wildlife, has confirmed that 1,980 macaques, valued at about $40 million, have entered Canada on three charter flights so far this year.
Charles River Research Station did not respond to questions about the U.S. study, the number of monkeys being brought to Canada, or claims that the monkeys may have been captured from the wild. The company previously denied wrongdoing in the United States. In its early 2023 earnings call, the company said “the concerns raised regarding the company’s conduct are without merit.”
In a written statement to The Canadian Press, the company did not deny that it was the cause of the surge in imports, but said it was committed to reducing the use of animals in testing as much as possible.
The company noted that regulatory authorities around the world require that medicines be tested on animals before being used in humans to ensure patient safety. According to the report, the use of non-human primates, medically known as NHPs, is used to treat a variety of diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, diabetes and vaccines, including COVID-19. It is said to play an important role in treatment.
“Our work was a key component of the research that led to these discoveries and has played an important role in the advancement of human as well as animal medicine,” the statement said.
“Canada is a world leader in rigorously protecting animal and human health in the use of NHPs in medical research,” it added. “Charles River is deeply committed to animal welfare and exceeds international standards for the care of research models under our care.”
The link between the introduction of monkeys into Canada and Canada’s Charles River Research Station site was revealed in a Toronto Star investigation in March of this year in collaboration with Southeast Asia Globe, with support from the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Research Network. became a target.
Cargo continues to arrive, with Transport Canada confirming a fourth shipment is scheduled to arrive next week. The situation has caught the attention of the federal NDP, which is demanding action from the Liberal government.
Last week, three New Democratic Party MPs wrote to ministers, naming the company by name and calling for “immediate action” on the issue.
“The illegal importation of endangered macaques reveals serious deficiencies in the enforcement of Canada’s environmental and transportation regulations,” the letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, said.
Lawmakers are demanding answers about “the steps being taken to address these serious violations and prevent future recurrence,” and that the upcoming November 7 shipment should be suspended. It said it raises concerns for “both our nation’s ecosystem and public safety.”
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing last year, but it is legal to use live primates for drug testing purposes.
The federal government maintains there are no violations of the law and says Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency rigorously inspect animals brought into the country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently met with the Cambodian Prime Minister on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos. Prime Minister Trudeau’s office did not respond to questions about whether he was aware of the monkey imports or whether he had raised the issue at the meeting.
The NDP’s letter follows a letter from the Canadian Animal Alliance to the Minister of the Environment in August calling for an immediate halt to imports of monkeys from Cambodia.
“Canada has been advocating that Canada follow the lead of the United States and suspend trade in long-tailed macaques from Cambodia until we can be sure they are not captured from the wild,” said Twyla Francois, a researcher with the group. and the Director of Education.
She added that the morality of using monkeys for drug testing is questionable. Macaque monkeys were classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2022 due to rapid population decline.
They are smart animals, Francois said. “There’s a bigger issue of recognizing that even though these animals are sentient and have complex emotional lives, they are the most studied species in Canada in the highest distress categories. .”
Michael Sirasi, a primatologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, said he and other researchers who study primates say experiments on monkeys are “immoral” and “not something Canada should be doing.” He said he thought so.
There are also real safety concerns, he said. Captive-born animals are usually raised in pathogen-free environments, but it is difficult to assess what pathogens wild monkeys may carry.
He said wild monkeys could pose a serious public health risk to humans if brought in for research.
Lisa Jones-Engel, a primatologist and activist south of the border, said she was disappointed to see Canada not applying the same level of oversight as the United States.
Jones Engel, senior scientific advisor for primate experiments at the nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said that after China stopped sending monkeys overseas during the coronavirus pandemic, Cambodia appears to be intervening as a supplier.
“It was very clear that it was biologically impossible for the number of monkeys coming out of Cambodia to have been bred in captivity,” she said, pointing to the U.S. government’s conclusion.
The Cambodian Consulate General in Toronto did not respond to a request for comment.
Jones-Engel said recent advances in medical technology have provided viable alternatives to animal experimentation, such as stem cell research and 3D tissue culture, allowing researchers to study organs and organ systems. He added that it is now possible to simulate the mechanism of Chip.
Environment and Climate Change Canada said the agency conducts rigorous and thorough inspections of foreign animal imports to ensure compliance with federal and international wildlife regulations.
Spokesperson Samantha Bayard said both the Environment Ministry and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have tested all three flights of macaques that have arrived in Canada so far this year.
“As of today, no violations have been detected,” Bayard said. “If it is determined that a macaque (or other non-human primate) has been illegally harvested, traded, or transported into Canada, ECCC enforcement officers will take appropriate action in accordance with published wildlife law compliance and enforcement policies. We will take appropriate measures.”
He said the federal government is aware of the ongoing investigation in the United States and continues to monitor the situation closely.
The company did not respond to requests for details about what happens to individual animals after they arrive in Quebec.
Jones Engel said monkeys used in pharmaceutical research are typically first isolated and then experimented on in a process that can take months or more. Finally, they are euthanized so researchers can examine the effects of the drug on their tissues and organs.
This means that as soon as the monkeys are put on a plane in their home country, their lives are effectively lost, Jones-Engel said.
“This is a one-way ticket. … They can’t go back to their forests or their families,” she said. “This monkey’s end is to be put into a red biohazard bag and thrown into an incinerator.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.
