Hamilton MP, researcher join calls for Ottawa to halt imports of long-tailed macaques into Canada

Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green and McMaster University researcher Tracy Prowse have joined Canadian researchers and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in calls for the federal government to halt the importation of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia into Canada.

According to PETA, the monkeys are being imported into Canada under the guise that they were not caught in the wild. They have pointed to ethical concerns and potential public-health risks.

Both Green and Prowse have signed a petition calling on the government to halt the shipments.

"What's become clear through … groups like PETA and others is that there is an ongoing trade of illegal Cambodian long-tailed macaques that are being imported into Canada for the purpose of what would be considered unethical research practices," Green told CBC Hamilton in December.

That isn't science, it is monkey business.- Lisa Jones-Engel, PETA's senior science advisor

Green said those responsible for importing the monkeys into Canada started doing so "after having been exposed and investigated in the United States of America." 

Charles River Laboratories — a Wilmington, Mass.-based pharmaceutical company that has a sprawling facility in Montreal — announced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that involved the indictment of two senior Cambodian officials over what authorities described as "multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States."

No charges have been brought against Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officials, and the company has said it will fully co-operate with the U.S. investigation.

Amy Cianciaruso, chief communications officer for Charles River, told CBC Hamilton in an emailed statement the company also "complies with all Canadian regulations" and that its activities are "inspected regularly to ensure compliance."

Meanwhile, Green said "right now we are watching these sky taxi flights that are being chartered by Charles River Laboratories that have basically utilized a very lax enforcement or gaps in Canada's enforcement of environmental and participation regulations.

"We've been calling on the government to basically enforce its existing laws, investigate the violations of the Canada Transportation Act and scrutinize all international shipments involving these endangered species." 

The New Democrat MP said Canada needs to have additional safeguards in place  to verify that the long-tailed macaques being imported "were bred in legitimate facilities and not sourced illegally from the wild."

He said coming out of the height of the pandemic and watching the way in which pathogens are spread, "we know this to be not only unethical in terms of the treatment of the endangered species, but also puts the Canadian public at risk, including the workers in the laboratories to have the potential for cross contamination and leading to sickness."

Canada has become 'a monkey chop shop': PETA advisor

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) — an international agreement protecting wild animals and plants ratified by more than 180 countries including Canada — is mainly administered within Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

A report from the CITES Secretariat released this week recommends that "all parties" suspend trade of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia until that country can provide evidence that the macaques exported were not caught in the wild. The report calls on Cambodian officials to respond by Jan. 30 so that the recommendation may be considered by the time CITES meets in early February.

PETA said this week it applauds the new recommendation. According to Lisa Jones-Engel, PETA's senior science advisor, primate experimentation, over the past year, Canadian CITES authorities had thrown open the doors for Charles River Laboratories to import thousands of monkeys from Cambodia. 

Jones-Engel said since early 2023, Canada has imported more than 6,000 live macaques from Cambodia, which were then reclassified as specimens before tissues and bodily fluids were shipped to Charles River labs in the U.S.

"That isn't science, it is monkey business," Jones-Engel told CBC News.

With a ban on the direct importation of long tail macaques from Cambodia into the U.S. in place since 2022, "Canada has effectively become a monkey processing plant, a monkey chop shop," Jones-Engel said.

She said Charles River is now doing some of the experiments directly in Canada "and then taking bits and pieces of those monkeys — blood, tissue, organs — packaging them up and sending them to their facilities in the U.S. And this is all under the approval of the Canadian authorities."

Jones-Engel added that Canadian CITES authorities appeared to have been convinced by Charles River that tests done using hair or nail clippings taken from the monkeys imported into Canada will discriminate between captive-bred or wild-caught monkeys.

In Charles River's statement to CBC, it said PETA's information was "misleading" and "debunked."

It also added that "NHPs (non-human primates) are often the only relevant and accepted animal models for critical, potentially life-saving research. They have been vital to the discovery and development of organ transplantation, treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, vaccines including all COVID vaccines and many other diseases that cause human suffering."

Prowse, a biological anthropologist at McMaster University, said while she does not study primates as part of her own research, she is "deeply concerned about the ethical treatment of primates." 

Prowse is among dozens of researchers across Canada, including renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, who have joined a growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical research in Quebec. The letter was signed by 80 scientists, academics, doctors and students and was addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his environment minister and the premier of Quebec.

"I signed the petition because my colleague, Dr. Michael Schillaci (U. of Toronto Scarborough) raised this issue at our recent national meetings of the Canadian Association for Biological Anthropology," Prowse said in an email to CBC Hamilton.

"He reported that there is reason to believe that wild long-tailed macaques in Cambodia have been trapped and shipped to Canada, falsely labelled as captive-bred animals.

"This is a serious problem, both for the conservation of wild primates, but also for the health risks this poses to Canadians," she added.

According to Prowse, primates used for experiments are supposed to be free of known diseases, but wild macaques can carry pathogens unknown to medical researchers.

'No indication of non-compliance': ECCC

Environment and Climate Change Canada said it is aware of the United States investigation into the importation of non-human primates from Cambodia, adding that Canada verifies imports and re-exports of foreign wildlife to ensure that those involved in wildlife trade are complying with international and federal laws that conserve and protect wildlife.

A spokesperson said ECCC monitors trade to ensure wildlife imports comply with existing acts and regulations, specifically the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA), which is the Canadian federal law through which Canada meets its obligations to regulate trade in species listed under the CITES.

"ECCC has verified that all recent imports of live macaques, tissues, serum, blood or plasma coming directly or indirectly from Cambodia or other countries for use in biomedical research comply with WAPPRIITA," Cecelia Parsons wrote in an email to CBC Hamilton.

"As of early December 2024, the department has found no indication of non-compliance."

Parsons said ECCC continues to monitor the situation, examining and verifying export permits of the species' country of origin in co-operation and co-ordination with other relevant federal departments and agencies.

"If it is determined that macaques (or any other non-human primates) have been harvested, traded, or transported illegally, ECCC enforcement officers will take appropriate action in accordance with the Compliance and enforcement policy for wildlife legislation," Parsons wrote in the email. 

'A multi-billion dollar industry'

"Canadians need to know that their officials have put them smack dab in the middle of wildlife trafficking," Jones-Engel said.

She said the trafficking of wildlife is not only "incredibly dangerous and detrimental to the survival of these species," which are now endangered, "but also carries with it an undeniable public health risk." 

"I don't think the Canadians know that. I don't think they have any clue what their authorities have been giving away essentially to Charles River Laboratories. This is a multi-billion dollar industry and apparently money is carrying the day in Canada," said Jones-Engel.