PETA calls for charity for Indian monkeys

Kolkata, Jun 12 (UNI) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has urged several of India's largest fruit exporters to donate mangoes as a charity for the abused Indian macaque monkeys, used in experiments by the US-based Covance Laboratories.

Sending letters to 14 fruit exporting companies in eight Indian cities, PETA said the Indian macaque monkeys, kept in small barren cages, were being used in painful and crippling experiments in various facilities of Covance Laboratories.

PETA pointed out that while the monkeys were only given the occasional half of a banana or quarter of an apple, a meal of mangoes or mango puree would give them nutrition and comfort as well as a connection to the home which their ancestors were forcibly removed from.

A Covance laboratory in New Jersey was the target of an eleven-month PETA undercover investigation during which Covance employees were videotaped physically, verbally and psychologically abusing monkeys on a daily basis.

PETA claimed its undercover video footage revealed repeated violations of the US federal Animal Welfare Act by Covance workers.

" We would like nothing better than to see Covance's animal torture chambers shut down for good," PETA Research Associate Alka Chandna said in a statement.

" But in the meantime, we are asking for the charity of these fruit exporters to give these imprisoned and abused Indian macaques just a semblance of joy and comfort," she said.

PETA's letters went out to mango exporters in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Chennai, New Delhi, Pune, Muvattupuzha, Belgaum and Kolkata.

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