Report uncovers disturbing truth behind monkeys sold for 'corrupt' industry: 'There can be no dispute'

Yahoo

25-05-2025

A groundbreaking report from Sandy River Research asserted that large swaths of so-called "captive-born" macaques from Southeast Asian breeding facilities might actually be poached wild monkeys.
Endangered long-tailed macaques, native to Southeast Asia, have likely been poached and sold en masse to U.S.-based research facilities.
According to Mongabay, Cambodia exported captive-born monkeys for biomedical research purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the numbers reported by these breeding facilities don't add up. In 2022, Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries reported over 73,000 captive macaque births in just one month.
This is way outside the norm. Mongabay reported that, just two years prior, the total population in these facilities was a little over 69,000. Sandy River suggested that wild monkeys have been captured and sold to breeding facilities, which then forge the birthing rates on official records.
Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries refuted Sandy River's claims. However, an anonymous poacher told Mongabay that he's been catching and selling long-tailed macaques to middlemen who bribed authorities and transported them to breeding farms in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"There can be no dispute that the deficit has been filled by macaques obtained illegally and likely laundered into and out of the K-F site [monkey farm] for export for many years," Sandy River said.
This is about more than long-tailed macaques.
The anonymous poacher told Mongabay that he's encountered fewer monkeys each year. Though that evidence is anecdotal, long-tailed macaques are already an endangered species. Due to deforestation and trade demand, their population has declined by about 40% in the last 40 years.
When a species declines or goes extinct, its ecosystem can be thrown out of balance, harming biodiversity. Humans across the world depend on biodiversity for fresh water, reliable food systems, and about half of modern medicines, according to the World Health Organization.
If this report is correct, it seems that the biomedical research industry fuels this illegal trade of endangered species for animal testing.
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Lisa Jones-Engel, a primate scientist with PETA, said in an email to Mongabay that the biomedical research industry is clearly complicit in supporting "a transnational criminal network that illegally sources wild primates for the violent and corrupt international primate trade."
Sandy River suggested that global authorities suspend primate imports until Cambodia and Vietnam can provide proper legal documentation. It also recommended more thorough law enforcement.
So far, these actions have not been taken. If you would like to help on an individual level, you can try donating to causes that support endangered species, like the World Wildlife Fund.
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