Last week, comedian Ricky Gervais lent his support to UK animal rights group BUAV, which is the trading name of The Campaign to End All Animal Experiments. He threw his weight specifically behind their Stop the Baby Trade project, which aims to end the international exchange of primates for research purposes.
“Nearly a vegetarian” but totally an animal activist, this is but one of the many animal causes Gervais has championed. When bullfights needed to be stopped in Catalonia, Gervais was there. When activists opposed fox hunting in the British Isles, the comedian came to their rescue, and when PETA needed someone to play the voice of a rabbit in an anti-fur campaign, they called on none other than Gervais. Now, he’s sounding the alarm for monkeys.
“Imprisoning monkeys and snatching their babies is a disgusting way to treat other primates,” Gervais says on the BUAV website. “Monkeys are highly intelligent beings who feel pain and distress, just like us.”
As part of its campaign, BUAV cites a recent investigation into the capture and trade of long-tailed macaques on the island of Mauritius where every year, up to 10,000 monkeys are trapped and exported to the developed world and used in consumer product testing and studies involving diseases like hepatitis and AIDS. According to the overview, “The BUAV has uncovered an industry that inflicts great suffering on nonhuman primates, one which rips families apart, imprisons some for life as breeding ‘machines’ and sends others overseas.” Each monkey is reportedly sold into science for about £2,600 (more than $4,000).
To help put an end to the trade, Gervais suggests you support the BUAV with a donation. If anyone can cure diseases without harming monkeys, it’s this guy.
Photo by Admiralty via Wikimedia Commons.