Animal testing is a really touchy subject as well it should be. Our use of animals in testing everything from make-up to new drugs is one of the darker spots of our society and unfortunately is something that we continue to do. So much so that supplying all those animals for testing purposes is big business with monkeys making up a large portion of the animals being used.
Figures released recently shows that in Britain alone more than 4,000 monkeys are used each year for animal testing with much of the supply coming from huge monkey farms in China. Farms that according to sources can breed up to 50,000 monkeys a year.
The Sunday Mirror uncovered disturbing images inside the monkey farms after visiting the Conghua area of Guangzhou province in China. Home to more than 40 farms, chimps arrive here from Cambodia and are bred to be sold across the globe.
Obscured by hills and notoriously secretive, the chimp camps are hidden away from the world. But our investigators – posing as businessman looking to help supply monkeys to the UK for testing – were able to get access to some of the farms.
Inside, monkeys were packed tight into cages. Mothers clutched their babies in the sterile prisons awaiting the journey to the labs of Europe, America and the Far East where they will be tortured in the name of science.
Source: Mirror :: 50,000 monkeys held in Chinese hell farms
With most of the monkeys selling for around $1,600 USD (£1,000) making the export market for monkeys and chimps pretty close to $250 million (£150 million).
