US Animal Welfare Organization Calls for Shipment of 1,000 Lab Monkeys Not to Be Returned to Cambodia

A laboratory monkey interacts with employees in the breeding centre for cynomolgus macaques (longtail macaques) at the National Primate Research Center of Thailand at Chulalongkorn University in Saraburi, on May 23, 2020. Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

An animal welfare organization is calling for a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded biomedical research company not to return a shipment of over 1,000 monkeys back to Cambodia after federal agencies flagged the shipment last year.

Liz Tyson Griffin, programs director and head of sanctuary at Born Free USA, said in a March 16 press release that the organization communicated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services its willingness to provide a lifetime sanctuary for the long-tail macaques.