Coups de coeur : les bonnes nouvelles animaux, durables ou non...

Following a vigorous PETA campaign that included complaints to the government, thousands of e-mails and phone calls, and public protests, Air China has confirmed to PETA that it is joining China Southern Airlines, China Airlines, and dozens of other leading companies in the cargo and passenger airline industry worldwide in refusing to transport monkeys to laboratories. In an e-mail sent today to PETA, Air China’s cargo manager, Jason Wang, wrote, “[Air China has] stopped conducting this business.” The airline’s decision comes less than 24 hours after PETA asked its Facebook and Twitter followers to call Air China Cargo’s main office at John F. Kennedy airport and demand that the airline stop shipping primates to laboratories—a move that led to thousands of phone calls to the company.

“China is the source of more than 70 percent of monkeys imported to the U.S. for use in cruel experiments—and now that Air China is no longer participating in this bloody trade, U.S. experimenters will find it harder to get their hands on more victims,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “PETA will continue to pressure airlines worldwide to follow Air China’s lead and stop delivering primates to certain suffering and death.”

PETA’s complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding Air China’s unsafe handling of laboratory-bound monkeys resulted in citations against the airline for violating federal law. An action alert posted on PETA’s website last week prompted more than 23,000 people to e-mail Air China.

Nearly every major domestic and international airline—including American, Delta, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air India, and dozens of others—refuses to transport primates to laboratories, where they are caged, tormented in painful experiments, and then killed. Only a small handful of airlines—including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, United Airlines subsidiary Continental Cargo, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines—continue this practice.