Good news for macaques

Press release CITES CoP19 n°3
Panama

On November 16, authorities arrested Masphal Kry, Director of Wildlife and Biodiversity at Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in the transit zone of John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. Masphal Kry was traveling to Panama. He was expected to be the head of Cambodia’s delegation to the plenary session of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Kry is accused by the Homeland Security Investigation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of trafficking wild long-tailed macaques to animal testing laboratories in the United States and other countries in conspiracy. Seven other people have been charged with the same offence, including Omaliss Keo, Director General of the Cambodian Forestry Administration, and six managers aged between 29 and 71 from Vanny Bio Research, a company devoted to breeding long-tailed macaques for laboratories around the world. The parent company is Hong Kong-based. Its 2 breeding farms are located in Phnom Penh and in Pursat, Cambodia. Vanny Bio Research was inspected and approved by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 2010.

“On the Trail” n°34, the quarterly information and analysis report on endangered animals poaching and smuggling published on October 25, 2022 reports on page 124 of a criminal investigation in the United States on international trafficking of primates, in particular long-tailed macaques, from Cambodia.

 

All other Robin des Bois’ press releases on this CITES in Panama:

“An arrk and 9 tuned notes”, ^[4] (CITES CoP19 n°5), November 25, 2022
“CITES : 11 ups and one down ^[5]” (CITES CoP19 n°5), November 23, 2022
“The ups and downs of CITES ^[6]” (CITES CoP19 n°4), November 21, 2022
“Good news for macaques” (CoP19 n°3), November 18, 2022
“Good day for trees ^[7]“, (CITES CoP19 n°2), November 18, 2022
“Panama, the great sellout of wild animals and plants ^[8]” (CITES CoP19 n°1), November 14, 2022