Kenya Airways will no longer be transporting monkeys to the U.S. to be used in laboratory experiments.
The airline which has shipped hundreds of monkeys from a Mauritius breeding farm says it will cease the business once its current contract expires next month.
KQ’s decision came just 24 hours after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) contacted CEO Allan Kilavuka over the harsh treatment the animals were subjected to-long flight and then torment and death in laboratories.
Last week a crate of monkeys flown by KQ to New York spilled out onto a highway in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, following a truck crash.
"PETA would like to thank Kilavuka and Chair Michael Joseph for their decision to do away with this cruel, heinous business at Kenya Airways. Monkeys belong in the wild, not in laboratories, where their most basic needs, including home, family, and community, are better met," PETA Senior Vice-President Jason Baker said.
"By making this decision, Kenya Airways also demonstrates their understanding of how using monkeys—or indeed any other animals—for research purposes poses higher risks to the possibility of emerging infectious diseases.”
Baker said the use of animals in experiments is failing to provide treatments and cures for humans
Studies show that 95 per cent of new medications that test safe and effective on animals fail in human clinical trials.
According to PETA, monkeys arrive by plane from Asia or Africa after enduring sometimes days-long trips as they sit in their own urine and feces.
They’re trucked to undisclosed quarantine sites before being sent to laboratories across the United States.
