PETA to Call For Federal Protection for Monkeys at Smuggling Trial of Cambodian Government Official

For Immediate Release:
March 8, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Miami – PETA supporters will gather outside the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for the trial of Masphal Kry, a deputy director in the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, who is facing federal monkey-laundering charges beginning Monday. Supporters will demand that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) add vulnerable monkey populations, which are being decimated by insatiable laboratory demand, to the endangered species list and put an end to the primate-importation pipeline.

Where:    In front of the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse, 301 N. Miami Ave., Miami

When:     Monday, March 11, 9 a.m.

Kry is the first to face trial following a five-year investigation by the FWS into a monkey-smuggling ring that allegedly abducted long-tailed macaques from their forest homes and falsely identified them as captive-born, a violation of both the Lacey and Endangered Species acts. The monkeys were allegedly purchased by U.S. companies that supply laboratories across the country with monkeys for deadly experiments. A one-age trial fact sheet with hyperlinks is here.

“The monkey-importation pipeline is rotten from the inside out,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA looks forward to seeing monkey smugglers held accountable but also for U.S. experimenters, whose thirst for primates is driving this trade, to implement superior animal-free research methods.”

Since 2017, tens of thousands of long-tailed macaques have been funneled from Cambodia to U.S. buyers, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. military research facilities, and several public and private universities. The animals are confined to cramped crates and loaded into airplane cargo holds, where they’re forced to languish in darkness amid their own waste as they’re transported around the globe.

PETA will provide daily updates of the trial at PETA.org.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone
and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.