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Shocking Exposé of the Cruel Trade in African Baboons for ResearchFor immediate release The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has today revealed the shocking results of its undercover investigation into the international trade in wild caught baboons for research. BUAV investigators travelled to Tanzania to infiltrate the primate supply network and obtained unique footage that reveals the suffering inflicted on these highly sensitive non-human primates. Our investigation has revealed:
Tanzania is a country of great natural wealth and spectacular beauty. It is well known for its extensive flora and fauna and is home to more than 4 million wild animals; including many non-human primates. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for tourists who travel to the country keen to experience wildlife safaris to see animals in their natural habitat. Yet, there is a side to Tanzania that remains hidden - the secret but lucrative trade in wild Olive baboons (Papio anubis). Key customers include international primate dealers based in the USA as well as laboratories in Russia and Yugoslavia. The baboons are trapped using bamboo-constructed traps and bananas as bait. Once a baboon enters the trap, he treads on a trip wire that causes the trap to fall. A heavy boulder tied to the trap ensures that the animal cannot escape. Sometimes whole families of baboons are captured. One trapper told the BUAV how he secures any caught baboons with a piece of rope and ties them to a tree until the dealer comes along to collect them. From the trapping fields the baboons are moved to holding stations where they may be kept for a number of weeks. BUAV investigators filmed wild caught adult baboons held at the dirty, run-down site of one of the main Tanzanian dealers, Zainab Wild Market. The baboons were imprisoned in cramped and appalling conditions - kept individually in rows of small, dark wooden dilapidated crates, poorly constructed with bits of wood nailed together and broken wire with wire floors. The animals were unable to stand at full height and could barely turn around. The baboons are then packed into wooden crates and put into the cargo holds of commercial airlines to be shipped thousands of miles from their native home to primate dealers and laboratories around the world. Baboons from Tanzania have been flown by airlines such as Air Tanzania, Egyptair and Ethiopian Airlines. All primates are listed as either endangered or potentially endangered species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Baboons, only indigenous to Africa, are listed in Appendix II that means they are in danger of becoming extinct if the trade in them is not strictly regulated. Primate populations are already suffering as a result of habitat destruction and the pet and bush-meat trade. The trade in primates for research exacerbates these already escalating problems. Baboons are widely used by the research industry and are currently favoured for use in controversial xenotransplant experiments. During these experiments, the baboons are transplanted with pig organs, either sewn into or outside the body, including organs from transgenic pigs that contain human genes. Published research has shown the immense suffering that is inflicted on these animals during these experiments - baboons have died or been killed as a result of fatal blood clots, infection, heart attacks and hyperacute rejection of the transplanted organ. Sarah Kite, Director of Investigations & Research, BUAV states: "This is an unspeakably cruel and barbaric trade that must be stopped. These highly sensitive and sociable primates who have spent their entire lives in freedom, roaming wild in troops across the Tanzanian terrain, are ripped from their surroundings and family groups in the most brutal way and then incarcerated in appalling conditions. Yet, their nightmare has only just begun. From here, they will be shipped around the world to spend their remaining days used simply as research tools by an industry that will ultimately kill them. We are calling on the Tanzanian Government to take action to put an immediate stop to this shameful trade" Notes to Editor:
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