EL AL Israel Airlines stops transporting monkeys for research

The BUAV welcomes the decision made by EL AL Israel Airlines to stop transporting primates destined for the research industry.

The BUAV and the Israel animal group, Behind Closed Doors, have worked together to achieve this important development. For many years EL AL Airlines has been a key transporter of primates because of Mazor Farm (BFC Israel), a company based in Israel that breeds and supplies long-tailed macaques for the international research industry, including the UK.

Only last year the BUAV obtained documentation to show that EL AL had also started to transport shipments of monkeys, including the offspring of wild-caught individuals, from Mazor Farm to the USA. Mazor Farm, a satellite company of Bioculture in Mauritius, imports wild-caught monkeys from Mauritius each year for breeding purposes and also exports large numbers of monkeys to Europe, including the UK.

This decision by EL AL is yet another blow for Bioculture, the Mauritius based primate supply company. The BUAV's recent investigation into the primate trade on Mauritius, which revealed the cruelty and suffering
inflicted on monkeys, has resulted in international media coverage and attention.

In addition to this, last week the Senate in Puerto Rico approved a resolution that opposes the construction of a Bioculture breeding farm to supply monkeys to the US research industry.

Thanks to the BUAV's international campaign to stop airlines transporting monkeys destined for research, many of the world's major carriers are now no longer involved in this cruel trade. EL AL will now join the BUAV's growing list of airlines that refuse to be associated with the primate trade.

For further information about the BUAV:
http://www.buav.org/our-campaigns/primate-campaign/primate-cargo-cruelty/

For further information about Behind Closed Doors:
http://www.invitro.org.il/node/109
http://www.buav.org/article/572/el-al-israel-airlines-stops-transporting-monkeys-for-research