For Immediate Release:
19 June 2024
Contact:
Hiraj Laljani; HirajL@petaindia.org
Utkarsh Garg; UGarg@petaindia.org
New Delhi – Following the disastrous removal of protections that had been afforded to rhesus macaques for 50 years under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, supporters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and the Aashray Foundation will join a giant wounded and tortured “monkey” in Connaught Place on Thursday to beseech Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reinstate and strengthen these protections. The action follows PETA India’s written appeal to the prime minister last year outlining all the reasons why such protections are needed, including that they would help prevent rhesus macaques from being killed or captured to be used for meat, experimentation or performances, or pet industry, among other forms of abuse.
When: Thursday, 20 June, 11 am to 12 noon
Where: B Block Building, opposite H&M, Rajiv Chowk, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001
“Protections should never have been stripped from rhesus macaques, who are often abused in laboratories, killed for meat, kept as pets, or forced to perform tricks,” says PETA India Science Policy Advisor Dr Ankita Pandey. “PETA India is appealing to the prime minister to ensure that these monkeys are once again protected under the law, which would also safeguard local ecosystems and human health.”
In the letter to Prime Minister Modi, PETA India raised concerns over evidence that unscrupulous foreign monkey importers were hoping to pillage India’s rhesus macaque population. Specifically, an office memorandum published by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) on 11 May 2022 highlighted possible attempts by the Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings to export vulnerable live monkeys from India for use in experimentation. In response, the WCCB alerted its field formations to the situation to prevent the illegal export of primates from India. This development reveals that Indian rhesus macaques face imminent threat.
In addition to being revered in Hinduism as earthly representatives of Lord Hanuman, rhesus macaques fulfil an important role in local ecosystems by dispersing seeds – due to their frequent consumption of fruit – and their absence can be detrimental to forests. Monkeys taken from their natural habitats by wildlife dealers in Asia are often crammed into small wooden crates and transported in the dark, terrifying cargo holds of planes for as long as 30 hours.
The stress of capture and transportation can weaken the animals’ immune systems, increasing the risk of spreading zoonotic diseases. In laboratories, monkeys are typically confined – alone – to small metal cages and tormented in experiments in which they’re cut open, poisoned, crippled, forced to become addicted to drugs, electroshocked, and killed.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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