Even as infamous monkey dealer Charles River Laboratories is under federal investigation for possible illegal importation into the U.S. of monkeys who were allegedly abducted from their forest homes and falsely labeled as captive-bred, the company is fighting efforts to force it to come clean to shareholders. PETA’s commonsense shareholder proposal calls for transparency on the origin of imported monkeys, but in its just-released proxy statement, the giant laboratory supplier advised shareholders to vote against it.
Charles River admits “that recent events have raised questions regarding non-human primate importation practices.” One such question, PETA points out, involves the 1,000 monkeys the company imported into the country who remain in limbo after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service stopped their sale to laboratories. PETA is pressing the company to release the monkeys to Born Free USA’s Texas sanctuary and pay for their lifetime care. The company has so far refused to meet with PETA and Born Free.
In a February briefing, the company’s CEO, James Foster, blatantly lied to shareholders, absurdly calling these monkeys—from whose misery Charles River rakes in billions in profit—mere “pests” in their native homes. Foster failed to mention that the experimentation industry has driven two macaque species to the brink of extinction.
Charles River’s top six executives were awarded a total of nearly $30 million in salaries, stock awards, and other compensation last year, which would cover the cost of these animals’ care.
“Charles River has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts but has so far refused to turn over the money to care for the animals it may have brought here illegally,” says PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “If the company can pay executives’ bloated salaries, it can certainly afford to send these monkeys to a reputable sanctuary arranged by PETA and Born Free.”
ACT NOW! Time is of the essence.
Please contact your members of Congress and respectfully ask them to urge the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Department of Justice to send the 1,000 monkeys to a sanctuary and to demand that Charles River pay for it.
