Stop Monkey Business Campaign - What can you do
Sign the petition
For signing the petition go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/anpo/HsmuiODwCSqC.cgi
Write a letter to the
Nepalese government or Embassy
Draft letter:
Dear Prime Minister, Ambassador,
Since 2003 your government allows the breeding and export of
rhesus monkeys for biomedical. What's more, your government
actually provide primate centers with monkeys from National
Parks managed by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation.
The primary objectives of your government are to conserve the
country's major representative ecosystems, unique natural and
cultural heritage, and give protection to the valuable and
endangered wildlife species. Now that you are supporting the
breeding and exporting of primates for biomedical research,
these objectives are being violated.
Monkeys are considered sacred and an important part of Nepal 's
heritage for a number of reasons. Monkeys are highly intelligent
animals and maintain intricate social structures. They have
complex emotional lives, caring for one another and showing love
to their babies as we humans do to our children. Ethically,
using monkeys in experiments that inflict mental and physical
pain is unacceptable and unconscionable.
Research illustrates that primate experimentation is no longer
the "gold standard" for study design. Past experience has
demonstrated that animal-modelled biomedical research yields
results that cannot be safely applied to humans. In addition,
there are now many alternative research methods (methods not
using living animals) that are capable of providing clinically
relevant data.
We believe the decision is not in accordance with the Working
Policy on Wildlife Farming, Breeding and Research 2003, as
communities living with monkeys do not benefit from this
development at all, and inflicting suffering to animals goes
against the spirit of the Muluki Ain. If the Government is
serious about supporting animal conservation and helping farmer
communities it should implement long term, scientific solutions
to monkey overpopulation, such as birth control and farm land
protection.
Nepal will not deserve credit for providing monkeys for
biomedical research by maintaining outdated, unreliable, and
unethical methods for conducting studies. We are now living in
an era when ethics as well as state-of-the-art study design are
important considerations when doing research.
Global trends indicate a strong movement towards the abolition
of experiments on primates. This is one of the reasons why it is
increasingly difficult for American research centers to find
sufficient research primates. However, an increasing number of
primates are needed by the US , especially for bio-terrorism
research. American centers try to find loopholes in the world's
legal animal rights provisions, and in Nepal (one of the few
countries in the world still largely without such legislation)
it has found ideal working ground.
I strongly request your government to demonstrate its commitment
to enlightened and ethical research practices by halting
(breeding facilities for) biomedical research on Nepalese
monkeys and implement legislation to prevent such developments
from reoccurring.
Thanking you in advance,
Was signed
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Send the letter to:
Hon. Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Singha Durbar
Kathmandu , Nepal
Telegrams: Prime Minister, Kathmandu , Nepal
Faxes: + 977 1 227 286 or 428 570
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister