VICTORY: Air France Backs Down!

Source.

We welcome February with some excellent news!  

Thank you to all of you who read and acted on yesterdays post asking you to contact Air France and ask them not to transport 60 live primates from Africa to the USA for vivisection purposes.  Within just 24 hours of Peta finding out about the planned Air France transportation and prompting all of us to take action, 68,000 e-mails, thousands of Facebook and Twitter posts along with hundreds of calls were generated in support.  Peta has now confirmed that Air France has cancelled their plans!

This once again proves that there really is strength in numbers and simply sparing a moment of your time to sign a petition or send an e-mail really makes a difference!

As always, there is still work to be done and we now need to continue to work on Air France and ask them to create a formal policy prohibiting future shipments of primates to animal testing labs.  Please click here in order to contact the Home Office and urge them not to weaken protection laws for animals in laboratories in the future.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

URGENT Stop Air France from transporting live Primates TOMORROW!

{Source: VOX Magazine}

Tomorrow, Air France will be transporting a shipment of 60 live monkeys from Africa to the USA where they will be used for experiments.  

The monkeys will be shipped in small wooden crates from an African breeding facility to Paris, they will then travel to Chicago and be transported by truck to the notorious Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL).  In December SNBL was exposed by Peta as particularly cruel to animals after many of them were physically and psychologically abused, deprived of veterinary care and left to suffer untreated wounds.

Almost every major airline refuses to participate in the transportation of primates for animal testing, however, Air France continues to profit from this industry.

If we act now there is still a chance to stop Air France from transporting the monkeys, please click here to contact Air France officials and ask them to cancel this shipment and ban all future transportation of primates for animal testing purposes. 

Please also ask your friends and family to do the same to ensure Air France are pressured to put a stop to their planned journey tomorrow.

Thank you.

Cargo Cruelty!

BUAV are running an international campaign to stop airlines transporting primates that are destined for research.  This follows an investigation which reveals that major airline carriers are shipping monkeys for use in labs around the world.

BUAV obtained a secret film showing rows of small crates, each crate containing monkeys on cargo trolleys ready to be loaded into the holds of Vietnam Airlines and Air France aircraft.  Other airlines playing a role in the primate trade for research include Air Canada (flying monkeys from China to labs in Canada) also both China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines (flying monkeys from South East Asia to the USA).

Please click on this link in order to contact the airlines mentioned above and ask them to stop participating in this cruel trade.  The letter isn't readily prepared but BUAV have prepared some suggested text which I have can copied and pasted below.  Please feel free to alter this slightly if you wish and e-mail or post to the addresses provided at the aforementioned link.

Suggested text from BUAV:

I am writing in support of the BUAV Cargo Cruelty campaign.

I was shocked to learn that your airline is involved in the transportation of monkeys to laboratories. It is unacceptable that these sensitive animals, ripped from their families and homes, are then subjected to the stress of being packed into small crates and shipped as cargo on your airline to end up in laboratories where they will suffer in experiments.

I urge you to join the increasing number of airlines that have made the decision to stop their involvement in this cruelty. Until you do, I will not be flying with your airline.

I sent my messages off quite a while ago and haven't heard back yet but if/when I do I will let you know.

You can download BUAV's Cargo Cruelty campaign poster and postcard by clicking on the links!

Find out more about the campaign.

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to let your friends know about this - the more the merrier!

UPDATE!

Response from Costa Coffee & More About the Primate Pet Trade

Further to my post on 29th October regarding the latest advert from Costa Coffee, I have received a response from the Marketing Director Jim Slater...

"Thank you for your email.

 

I want to assure you that we are concerned about animal welfare and insist that no compromise is made regarding animal welfare standards. 

 

By way of background, the idea for our advert focuses on the comparatively well known "infinite monkey theorem", which contends that because monkeys are highly intelligent, if you give a roomful of monkeys a typewriter each, they will eventually produce the entire works of Shakespeare. This is why monkeys are central to the film.

 

Although our advert looks like there were many monkeys in a room at the same time, in fact only a small number of monkeys were filmed - and never at the same time. The monkeys were filmed sensitively and individually and a veterinary surgeon was present on the set at all times. To be very clear, no monkeys were harmed during the filming of our advert. Special effects were used in the post-production process to create the impression of lots of monkeys together in one place. 

 

The monkeys were provided by a specialist organisation called Amazing Animals and have appeared in movies and on TV many times before, so are used to being around people. They were accompanied at all times by their own highly experienced and loving handlers, and left to do what came naturally to them. 

 

For your further assurance, I attach a copy of the letter from J Stephen Ware, BVM&S MRCVS the on-set supervisory veterinary surgeon.  Stephen Ware states he is happy with the way the animals were treated during the creation of the advert. 

 

I hope that this information goes some way to assure you of our high standards.

Yours sincerely
Jim Slater
Marketing Director"

Mr Slater enclosed a letter from Stephen Ware as mentioned but I am unable to insert a copy to this post at the moment, it basically agreed with what was written above.  This response has reassured me that the animals used were well looked after but the fact still remains that it using animals in this manner is simply encouraging people to see them as figures of fun and even as pets, instead of wild animals.  I am going to write back and tell Mr Slater this as it seems they have no intention of withdrawing the advert and this means no more Costa Coffee for me...

I have found out about a campaign currently run by Wild Futures asking for support in banning the UK Primate Pet Trade, read about it here and please take a minute to sign their petition here and consider writing to your MP with the template letter provided.