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They arrived on a plane, hundreds of new recruits in the urgent battle to defeat the global pandemic. Despite the key role they were assigned in developing profitable new vaccines, the new entrants were not sitting in business class. They made the trip in the cargo holds of small charter planes, and were confined for up to 50 hours in smelly wooden boxes, each barely larger than a backpack, and whose interiors were littered with waste and blood.
These were long-tailed macaques. A species of non-human primate that weighs about 15 pounds, and is one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Some colonies not only pioneered the use of tools to crack nuts and mollusks, but also taught their young the technique. In some areas where they meet tourists, they have been known to steal sunglasses and mobile phones for ransom in exchange for food.
These animals came from Cambodia, where, according to a federal indictment, many of them were plucked from the wild, transported in metal cages to a breeding facility, and given false papers specifying that they had been captive-bred — what a U.S. Fish and Forest Service official. The Wildlife Service calls it “monkey washing.” Some of them carried the identity cards of their captive cousins, apes that had been bred for research purposes but were deemed too sick and simply killed. All were destined for research facilities across the United States where the creatures would be pumped with chemicals or fitted with medical devices, monitored, euthanized, and dissected. Now, those same animals are at the center of a criminal trial currently underway in the Southern District of Florida.
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