[Petition] [Vivisection] Petition to save Rhesus Monkeys

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Please take a minute to sign this petition:

 

http://www.gopetition.com/online/3130.html

 

Kathmandu, September 21

 

Around 1,200 people from 21 countries have signed a petition calling

on Nepal to cancel its plans to establish laboratories using rhesus

monkeys and to export monkeys.

Signatures came from India, Singapore, Ireland, Belgium, the

Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, the

United Kingdom, China, New Zealand, Panama, Jordan, UAE, Israel,

Colombia, Spain and Japan as well as Nepal.

The Wildlife Watch Group (WWG) and Animal Nepal have joined hands with

the world's leading animal welfare agencies and biologists to oppose

breeding and exporting of Nepalese monkeys for biomedical research in

America, according to a statement issued here today by the WWG.

"The monkeys are to go to Washington and Texas where potentially

dangerous and/or lethal experiments will be carried out on them. Two

American agencies, the Washington National Primate Centre (WNPC) and

Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR), and their

Nepalese counterparts received government permission to catch, breed

and export Nepalese rhesus monkeys for this purpose" the statement

said.

The campaigners in their petition outline that monkeys are considered

sacred and are an important part of Nepal's heritage for a number of

reasons. They say Nepal will not deserve credit for providing monkeys

for biomedical research by maintaining outdated, unreliable, and

unethical methods for conducting studies. Most countries now maintain

a complete ban on great ape experimentation. India for instance, after

realising that its rhesus monkeys were used for gruesome radiation

experiments in the US, banned all primate exports in 1977, it added.

The statement further said: "American centres 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."

The campaigners have strongly requested the government of Nepal to

demonstrate its commitment to enlightened and ethical research

practices by halting breeding facilities for biomedical research on

Nepali monkeys and implement legislation to prevent such developments

from occurring again.