Nepal Monkey Captures Continue Despite Protests

April 2007

Nepal’s wild rhesus monkeys are still being captured for export to U.S. research labs, despite strong protests from local and international animal protection groups. Two collecting centers are under construction within Nepal, where the country’s native macaque monkeys will be held and bred for use in future experiments. As reported in IPPL News (September 2006, page 7, and December 2006, page 14), two U.S. government-funded primate research facilities are behind these projects: the Washington National Primate Center, Seattle, Washington, and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas.

Leading organizations opposing the projects—Wildlife Watch Group-Nepal (WWG), Animal Nepal, the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots branch in Nepal, and the International Primate Protection League—are dismayed that the new collecting centers are deliberately breaking the centuries of protection that these monkeys have traditionally enjoyed in their remote and rugged native land, where the animal-friendly philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism prevail. Jane Goodall has expressed opposition to these projects, stating that “Nepal’s monkeys are both sacred and beautiful creatures. They should not be exported to any country for research purposes, but should be allowed to live wild and free.”

But this is not the case. According to the 10 March 2007 issue of the Kathmandu Post:

There are already 80 rhesus monkeys at the breeding center of the research center in Kathmandu, [Dr. Rupak] Khadka said. DNPWC [the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation] is paid Rs 25,000 [US$370] for each monkey captured and used for the research, he said. The center has already taken permission for collection of a total of 300 healthy rhesus monkeys from Hetauda and other parts of the country.

On 30 January, WWG placed a banner (sponsored in part by IPPL) opposing the export of monkeys at a busy intersection in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. Unfortunately, vandals tore it down at the end of February. Plans are underway to place another banner at a higher location. WWG and other Nepalese organizations are also lobbying hard to reverse the Nepal government’s 2004 wildlife farming policy, which has enabled projects like the two collecting centers to proceed. The groups say they will use community pressure and legal action to counter the policy that, according to WWG Chairman Mangal Man Shakya, “contradicts the 1973 National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, and was announced without any consultation with local communities or conservationists, or even within the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.”