Armed with information that Maleth Aero reportedly shipped 360 endangered long-tailed macaque monkeys this month from Cambodia to Houston, ultimately destined for a notorious Alice, Texas, monkey facility, PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for an urgent investigation. Maleth Aero, acquired by AELF FlightService in 2021, allegedly transported the monkeys despite failing to possess a carrier registration through the USDA, which constitutes a clear violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). This is the second airline in as many months that appears to be flying monkeys into the U.S. illegally.

PETA filed a complaint on August 23 with the USDA after learning that Hainan Airlines reportedly illegally shipped 720 monkeys to another facility in Alice in August—even though the USDA had canceled the airline’s registration in May, making this shipment another apparent violation of the AWA. Both Alice facilities are operated by Inotiv, whose notorious Envigo beagle-breeding facility was recently shut down following PETA’s exposure of its horrific treatment of dogs.

Long-tailed macaques are now recognized as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature—in large part due to their trapping and exploitation as part of the international wildlife trade to U.S. laboratories, where they’re mutilated, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilized in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, psychologically tormented, and killed. Many are imported from filthy farms in Asia and can harbor infectious zoonotic diseases.

“Hundreds of terrified, endangered monkeys were crammed into wooden crates and forced to endure a long, harrowing journey, only to end up in a laboratory. These monkeys will never return to the forests of Asia,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “AELF FlightService is not above the law, and PETA is calling on the USDA to investigate this company’s reported shady monkey shipments, for everyone’s sake.”

PETA is also asking the USDA to investigate AELF FlightService for possibly illegally transporting monkeys on flights in August from Vietnam and Cambodia to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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