Shocking Exposé of the Cruel Trade in African Baboons for Research

Animal Protection Institute
Wednesday, 1 November 2000

Sacramento, CA -- Today, the Animal Protection Institute (API) joined the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in releasing the results of the BUAV's undercover investigation into the international trade in wild caught baboons for research. BUAV investigators infiltrated the primate supply network in Tanzania and filmed exclusive footage that reveals the shocking suffering inflicted on these highly sensitive non-human primates. The investigation revealed:

- a lucrative trade in wild Olive baboons, sold for as little as $12 by trappers yet earning nearly $1,200 each on the international market.

- the capture of wild baboons using cruel, crude bamboo traps.

- entire baboon families ripped from the wild and kept in inhumane conditions.

Tanzania is an increasingly popular tourist destination for those eager to experience wild animals in their natural habitat. Yet, there is a hidden side to Tanzania - the secret but lucrative trade in wild-caught Olive baboons captured for research.

As BUAV's exclusive video shows, baboons are captured in primitive bamboo traps using food as bait. From the trapping fields, baboons -- sometimes whole families -- are moved to run-down holding stations where they may be kept for weeks. BUAV investigators filmed wild caught adult baboons held at the site of one of the main Tanzanian dealers, Zainab Wild Market. Prior to being packed into the cargo holds of commercial airlines to be shipped thousands of miles to primate dealers and laboratories internationally, the baboons are isolated in poorly constructed, small wooden crates with broken wire floors. They are unable to stand at full height and can barely turn around.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ten shipments containing 564 baboons were imported to the United States for research in 1999. The baboons were captured in Kenya and Tanzania and brought to the U.S. by three commercial animal dealers (Buckshire Corporation of Perkasie, PA, Osage Research Primates of Osage Beach, MO, and Charles River of Houston, TX), and one research institution (Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, TX).

"These baboons, who have spent their entire lives roaming freely in troops across Tanzania, are brutally ripped from their family groups and kept in appalling conditions," said Sarah Kite, Director of Investigations & Research for the BUAV.

API is pleased to work with the BUAV in this campaign. A number of wild-caught baboons once used in laboratory research have retired to API's 170-acre sanctuary for nonhuman primates in Texas.

"Non-human primates are the most endangered animals in the world," said Dena Jones, Program Director for API. "Their survival is being further jeopardized by commercial dealers who take the animals from the wild and ship them around the world to sell for profit."

Added Kite, "We call on the Tanzanian Government to immediately stop this shameful trade."

For more information, or to contact Animal Protection Institute, see their website at: www.api4animals.org