Date: July 28, 2009
Cowering behind bars in secret breeding farms...
these are the monkeys trapped in China's cruel plan
to become the world's biggest exporter of
chimps for scientific tests. LINK
(CN): 50,000 monkeys
held in Chinese hell farms
Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:05 am (PDT)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/the-monkey-factory
*50,000 monkeys held in Chinese hell farms*
By Richard Jones; Nick Owens www.mirror.co.uk/nick-owens/
26/07/2009 www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storieS
Cowering behind bars in secret breeding farms... these are the
monkeys
trapped in China's cruel plan to become the world's biggest
exporter of chimps for scientific tests.
One farm nearing completion will be able to hold 50,000 monkeys -
making it the largest in the world.
Thousands of these frightened creatures are heading for the UK,
victims of a
booming global demand from pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies
for animals to use in tests.
Figures released last week reveal that the number of live tests on
monkeys
in Britain soared by 16 per cent to 4,598 in the past year.
And yesterday animals rights groups blasted the increasing use of
chimps for
testing in the UK and called on politicians here to end the cruel
trade.
Andrew Tyler, of Animal Aid, said: "Testing on monkeys is a savage,
ugly and
pointless business. If the public were to see what is happening to
these
poor monkeys during tests they would be horrified."
The Sunday Mirror uncovered disturbing images inside the monkey
farms after
visiting the Conghua area of Guangzhou province in China. Home to
more than
40 farms, chimps arrive here from Cambodia and are bred to be sold
across
the globe.
Obscured by hills and notoriously secretive, the chimp camps are
hidden away
from the world. But our investigators - posing as businessman
looking to
help supply monkeys to the UK for testing - were able to get access
to some
of the farms.
Inside, monkeys were packed tight into cages. Mothers clutched
their babies
in the sterile prisons awaiting the journey to the labs of Europe,
America
and the Far East where they will be tortured in the name of
science.
Most of the monkeys fetch about € ?£1,000 each. But cruel farm
managers spend as little as 20p a day caring for them.
China's market in exporting chimps - sought after by companies to
test on
because they are the closest animal to man - is now worth an
estimated
€ ?£150million a year.
Around 90,000 monkeys were used in tests in labs across the world
last year, and the vast majority were from Chinese farms.
One farm currently being built by the Guangzhou Blooming Spring
Biological
Technology Development Co is hidden in the countryside and
invisible from any main road.
Cages are concealed in a pink-tiled compound over a kilometre in
length and
are surrounded by a 12ft guarded wall. On arriving at the farm a
supervisor
boasted to our investigators: "We have bought that hillside and
soon it will
be covered in cages. We already have feeding facilities for
50,000."
In the farm's laboratory - where scientists test monkeys for
diseases
petrified chimps, many carrying babies, are locked behind steel
doors and let out high-pitched screams as they are tested.
At another camp, the Huazhen Laboratory Center, a manager explained
how the
UK is now becoming an increasingly important market for Chinese
monkey farm
owners to crack.
Laboratory manager Mr Huazhen said: "I have already visited
animal
laboratories at Huntington, Oxford. I have no doubt in my mind
China will soon be the most important exporter of monkeys in the
world."
EXPERIMENTS IN BRITAIN IN 2008
Scientists carried out 3.7million experiments on live animals in
Britain
last year - the highest number for two decades. As well as the
4,598
experiments on monkeys they included:
2.4million on mice
605,000 on fish
355,000 on rats
123,000 on birds
17,000 on rabbits
9,000 on horses and donkeys
360 on cats
