"Supporting Statement

Our company moves thousands of monkeys every year on U.S. highways, often over thousands of miles. Federal law requires that a veterinarian examine monkeys transported across state lines within 10 days prior to shipment. In July 2022, the USDA cited our company for transporting monkeys from its Reno facility to the University of Utah without proper veterinary inspections required under the federal Animal Welfare Act.1
Our company’s failure to conduct timely veterinary inspections, along with the company’s previously reported issues with infectious diseases,2 jeopardizes public health and safety. Imported monkeys can carry tuberculosis, deadly diarrheal pathogens, West Nile virus, malaria, herpes B, and other diseases and infectious agents that are transmissible to humans.
The threat is significant: In January 2022, after a truck carrying 100 monkeys crashed in Pennsylvania, three monkeys escaped and were shot on orders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as they posed a public health risk. Transporting monkeys across the U.S.—particularly when federal laws are broken—could harm our company’s reputation and business. It is in the company’s interest that it be transparent with its shareholders about the extent of its monkey transport within the U.S.
Our company is one of the largest importers of nonhuman primates into the U.S.—bringing in thousands of monkeys each year from Southeast Asia and Mauritius. The majority of these primates are of the species Macaca fascicularis (also known as “long-tailed macaques”).
According to the CDC, 95% of the 92,430 monkeys brought into the U.S. during fiscal years 2019 to 2021 were long-tailed macaques. The international trade in long-tailed macaques is steeped in violence, and widespread laundering of wild-caught animals as captive-bred is evident in recent indictments brought by the Department of Justice.3 These activities have a devastating impact on wild populations. In July 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the conservation status of long-tailed macaques from “vulnerable” to “endangered”—and cited the voracious experimentation industry in the U.S. as a major factor in the species’ dramatic population crash.4 The IUCN projects an additional population decline of 50% over the next three generations if current threats aren’t mitigated. Our company cannot remain linked to this biodiversity and ethical catastrophe—it is crucial that our company inform shareholders of measures it is taking to lessen its impact on populations of long-tailed macaques, as this division of our company’s business could suffer considerably if the company fails to be proactive."