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Dozens of researchers throughout Canada, together with famend environmentalist David Suzuki, have joined a rising refrain of voices urging the federal authorities to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical analysis in Quebec.
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A letter signed by 80 scientists, lecturers, medical doctors and college students says testing on long-tailed macaques from Cambodia must be banned on account of moral considerations and potential public-health dangers.
“A decade in the past, chimpanzees, our closest primate relations, ceased for use for experimentation as a result of utilizing such animal ‘fashions’ might not be justified from scientific, moral, and/or monetary views,” says the letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his atmosphere minister and the premier of Quebec.
The researchers say they’re additionally involved about “the intense dangers of transmission of zoonotic pathogens” that may very well be related to transporting macaques.
Their letter urges the federal authorities to finish constitution flights which were bringing the macaques into Canada, and to undertake laws banning the importation of all primates for biomedical testing.
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It’s the newest group so as to add extra stress on Ottawa to droop the monkey imports by Charles River Laboratories, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical big that has a sprawling facility in Montreal.
The corporate introduced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that concerned the indictment of two senior Cambodian officers over what authorities described as “a number of felonies for his or her function in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into america.”
No costs have been introduced towards Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officers, and the corporate has stated it’s going to totally co-operate with the U.S. investigation.
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At across the identical time, imports of monkeys from Cambodia into Canada dramatically surged, with Statistics Canada knowledge displaying a 500 per cent enhance in 2023 from the yr earlier than.
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Setting and Local weather Change Canada, the federal division answerable for monitoring business commerce in wildlife, confirmed to the Canadian Press that Charles River Laboratories has imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the nation between January 2023 and August of this yr. The financial worth of those imported macaques is round $120 million {dollars}, in response to Statistics Canada.
The division beforehand stated that officers rigorously and carefully examine imports of overseas animals, together with these introduced in by Charles River Laboratories, and that each one macaque imports thus far this yr have complied with federal and worldwide wildlife laws.
The federal government and the corporate have each stated that no Canadian legal guidelines have been damaged.
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Final month, the Canadian Transportation Authority issued a allow for an additional cargo on a cargo airplane chartered by Charles River Laboratories. A flight tracker reveals {that a} airplane with the identical flight quantity as what’s proven on the allow departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia final Thursday, and arrived in Montreal on Friday.
Jesse Greener, a professor of chemistry at Laval College who signed the researchers’ letter to the federal government, stated medical know-how has developed to a degree that makes it unjustifiable for the pharmaceutical business to proceed utilizing reside primates for testing.
“The federal government ought to take a management function and assist researchers and certainly the non-public sector to pivot from utilizing these unethical, and I’d say outdated and outdated and unreliable animal fashions, and embrace these rather more environment friendly and moral approaches which can be … exploding proper now,” stated Greener, who has executed analysis on strategies to interchange animals in such experiments.
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“It’s grotesque,” he stated of the animal use. “It’s time that we modify the web page on this chapter of horrible analysis and business actions.”
Canada banned the usage of animals for beauty testing final yr, however it’s nonetheless authorized to make use of reside primates for drug testing functions.
The federal authorities stated a draft technique geared toward lowering and changing the usage of animals in drug testing was printed in September and open to public consultations for 60 days.
The technique, which will probably be revised primarily based on enter from researchers, consultants and others, is predicted to be printed in June 2025, it stated.
“The federal government of Canada is dedicated to advancing efforts to interchange, scale back, or refine the usage of vertebrate animals in toxicity testing the place doable,” Setting and Local weather Change Canada stated in a press release Tuesday.
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Charles River Laboratories beforehand instructed The Canadian Press that whereas it is usually dedicated to lowering its use of reside primates, world regulatory our bodies require medication to be examined on animals earlier than they’re evaluated in people.
The corporate stated the usage of non-human primates has been very important in growing remedies for varied illnesses and that the requirements it applies in its services are exceeding world norms.
Matthew Inexperienced, a New Democrat MP who had beforehand referred to as on the federal authorities to halt the newest cargo of macaques, stated he has “nice concern” about importing this unique animal.
“Usually in Canada, Canadians prefer to imagine that our authorities has larger laws and extra stringent enforcement protocols with regards to defending endangered species, but this isn’t the case compared to what america has executed,” he stated.
Inexperienced and two of his NDP colleagues wrote a letter to a few federal ministers final month, demanding an “instant consideration” to the difficulty.
The Animal Alliance of Canada additionally despatched a letter to the atmosphere minister in August, urging the instant suspension of monkey importation from Cambodia.
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