Nepal Groups Issue White Paper on Monkey Trade

December 2007

A coalition of Nepalese animal groups has prepared a white paper on the increasing risk posed by foreign interests to their country’s native monkeys. The document is titled “There’s Some Monkey Business Going On Here: A Report On the Misuse of Nepal’s Rhesus Macaques in Medical Research” and was introduced by Dr. Jane Goodall at a press conference in Kathmandu on 5 November 2007. Thirty newspaper reporters and two TV stations were present at the event. IPPL’s Executive Director Shirley McGreal wrote the preface for the report.

The Stop Monkey Business Coalition is composed of Nepalese groups like Wildlife Watch Nepal, Animal Nepal, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Nepal, Wildlife Action Group, Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, and Nepal Roots & Shoots, which are campaigning together to oppose the plans to capture free-ranging rhesus monkeys for local use in breeding facilities and future export to research labs. Two monkey collecting centers are already in the process of being built. One of these facilities is associated with the Washington National Primate Center, Seattle, Washington, and the other with the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas.

Nepal is a nation that has previously never exported monkeys. The animals have been protected by the nation’s remoteness and by the strong religious beliefs of the Nepalese people. The coalition plans to continue the fight to maintain this fine tradition of primate protection. Already, Nepal’s animal welfare groups have engaged in public awareness actions to bring the danger to general attention, such as holding a street demonstration (organized by Roots & Shoots) and placing a large “Stop the Monkey Business” banner at a busy intersection in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, the banner was eventually vandalized, but more projects are being planned.

From “There’s Some Monkey Business Going On Here”

We at the International Primate Protection League urge our friends in Nepal to fight the plans to capture and incarcerate monkeys. If the monkeys of Nepal had a choice of where they would live, not one would vote to be shipped overseas. Please, people of Nepal, do not let foreign money seduce you into abandoning your nation’s monkeys. Let them live free as they have done for thousands of years.
- Shirley McGreal, IPPL founder (Preface)

Right now the monkeys live a beautiful tribal life deep in the high mountain forest, much the same as my relatives who inhabit the Langtang region. They don’t bother anyone, they are not in the way...they are not numerous. They are an integral part of the land’s eco-system and surely are important to the balance of life in that area, which contains people living in harmony with nature. Why tempt the people with large amounts of money to give away their heritage, the beautiful natural environment that supports them in so many ways...
- Willow Lama, singer and educator