Air France Announces They Will Stop Transporting Monkeys For Animal Testing

9th July, 2022

The month of July brings heartening news for one of the world’s leading commercial airlines has taken a step to cease animal cruelty.

Once its ongoing contract has concluded, Air France has announced that they will cease to transport crates of captive monkeys for animal testing. A much-awaited move since years together, this is a big win for many animal welfare groups who have been fervently imploring the authorities to do this for nearly 10 years.

Right from PETA U.S to PETA France and several other popular activist organizations played a role in furthering the fight for coexistence.

Uncover What Brought About Air France’s Decision

It all began when PETA U.S. initiated a movement to compel Air France to reconsider its monkey and primate transference facility. There were intense debates that were hosted in Air France’s assembly rooms after lots of demonstrations by activists on a global scale.

There was also a significant influence by “Shareholder activism” after the instructive conversations between PETA and Air France’s leadership were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, PETA initially faced failure. It was only after the airline closed all debate that the animal welfare organization sought to have a calculatedly disruptive crusade.

• There was a multipronged approach with animal rights activists interrupting Air France’s officials amid crucial seminars and conferences in the industry and placing massive billboards at Air France-connected airports.
• In fact, PETA France joined the fray and executed an in-flight protest, in the airline as it flew from Paris to Marseille.
• They even had celebrity activists chime in to give a known voice and face to the protests.
• Most notably, renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall and musician Peter Gabriel had expressed their displeasure about the act to the commercial airline.
• In 2014, honorary PETA director and actor James Cromwell staged a heartrending demonstration where he encased himself in a cage at LAX, to paint a picture of the real cruelty. “The real horror story is the pain and terror of the monkeys in Air France’s cargo holds beneath the feet of unsuspecting passengers. My friends at PETA and I are telling Air France that cruelty shouldn’t fly and that the airline needs to join the rest of the industry in refusing to deliver primates to their deaths in laboratories,” Cromwell said at the time.
• Other activist organizations and leaders who spearheaded the movement were Stop Camarles, One Voice, and Action for Primates.

The Verdict From Other Commercial Airlines

While Air France is the most prominent commercial airline to say no to animal cargo contracts, there are others in the airline industry who have refused similar contracts. Leading commercial airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, US Airways, Qantas and Emirates have done the same in addition to over 100 others. However, there seems to be progress to be made on this front, as Spain’s Wamos Air and EGYPTAIR remain on the fence. They have not disclosed plans to stop any animal cargo that’s headed to testing facilities be it monkeys or primates. At the moment they seem to be moving ahead with the inhumane practice.

PETA Seeks To Urge EGYPTAIR To Echo Air France’s Decision

Because Air France will not aid and abet in transporting monkeys, their decision alone will ensure that more primates can settle and coexist with humans by being allowed to stay in the wild. Nevertheless, PETA opines that trafficking of apes for clinical trials should cease once and for all. Moreover, they should not be bred in captivity on factory farms. The animal welfare organization has now been looking to chastise EGYPTAIR or have them reconsider their decision to continue this practice.

The commercial airline has flown nearly 5,000 monkeys into New York since March. PETA has been urging global denizens to reach out to EGYPTAIR and request them to cease benefiting fiscally from animal cruelty.

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