Transportation of 70 monkeys to laboratories stopped in Israel
The 70 wild-caught adult female monkeys, plus 20 youngsters born in captivity, will not now leave Israel for research as planned.
During the court hearing, Mazor Farm representatives claimed that the order from the Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd. (SNBL) in the States includes 50 wild-caught adults and 40 young captive-born monkeys, and the planned experiment on the monkeys requires the usage of both adult and young monkeys from the same source. However, on Tuesday 5th June, the Israeli High Court of Justice prohibited the exportation of wild-caught monkeys.
The court’s decision is extremely significant due to the fact that Mazor Farm is now “stuck” with hundreds of wild-caught adult monkeys who were intended for delivery. The farm cannot now transport them.
Mazor Farm owners will now have to find out if SNBL will still be interested in receiving only the 40 captive-born monkeys for their experiment. Their answer will be brought to court on 10th June 2012. This is bad news for Mazor Farm which is now under siege from animal rights activists and has its arms tied.
Please remember however that there are still 35-40 baby captive-born monkeys at risk, and these individuals may be transported by the Israeli airline El-Al.
