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Public Opinion Sides With Primates
 As field primatologists have learned more about the fascinating lives of nonhuman primates and as the animal-protection movement has worked to expose the atrocities that these sensitive and intelligent animals are subjected to in laboratories, the public has become increasingly outraged by primate experimentation. A 1999 Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) survey conducted for The New Scientist indicates that the majority of Britons disapprove of using primates to test cosmetics and many drugs and vaccines, particularly when the tests involve pain, illness, or death—as they almost always do—and a 2001 Zogby poll shows that the majority of Americans believe it is unacceptable to use chimpanzees in experiments.
Setting a Precedent: Countries Ban Some Primate Experimentation
The use of great apes in experiments has been banned in Great Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, and Japan has halted invasive experimentation on great apes. However, experiments on other primates continue in these countries. As one of only four countries in the world that allow chimpanzees to be used in tests, the United States also has the dubious distinction of leading the world in the number of primates who are used and killed in experimentation.
The Fight to Stop Primate Experimentation
In recent years, several projects aimed at building primate-research facilities have been halted because of public pressure, including projects at Cambridge University in the U.K. and at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. In Camarles, Spain, a primate-breeding farm belonging to Covance was forced to close, and in the United States, the construction of a proposed primate-breeding facility was stopped in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Airlines Reject Cruel Trade
Many airlines that have transported primates destined for laboratories have also washed their hands of the bloody business. British Airways imposed a blanket ban on the transport of live animals for use in experiments—joining Virgin Airlines, a company that has never engaged in such transport. China Airlines—once the second-largest transporter of primates to the United States—also stopped carrying primates destined for experimentation. Currently, no major U.S.-based airline will fly nonhuman primates to the United States from other countries, and the number of foreign international airlines that will carry them to the United States is limited. However, some carriers, including American Airlines, continue to ship primates who are destined for laboratories between cities within the United States.
Get active to help stop experiments on primates!
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Columbia Cruelty 
Covance Caught: Investigation Reveals Terrified Primates 
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