| – co-accused Guyanese supplier on the runCalifornia, US (The Examiner) – In September 2011, Florida animal broker Robert Matson Conyers was charged with ten counts of animal cruelty after primates died in transit and were discovered at the Los Angeles airport on Air China.The primates were forced to endure a circuitous trip from Guyana to Miami, and on to Los Angeles, back to China, and then back to Los Angeles.The monkeys died of neglect, starvation and hypothermia (Reuters photo)The trial was scheduled to begin yesterday.When authorities opened the wooden shipping containers at the airport, they found 15 of the 25 monkeys Conyers was transporting had died egregious deaths. The monkeys had no food or water, and the surviving primates had eaten their dead imprisoned crate mates to survive.Of the 25 monkeys shipped, only nine ultimately survived. They now live at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.Deputy City Attorney Don Cocek, who is prosecuting the case stated:“The conditions inside of the shipping containers were horrendous and criminal. Of the 25 monkeys that were shipped, only nine survived the ordeal.”According to Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) from January 1st, 2010 to November 16th, 2011 there were 20,895 monkeys imported through Los Angeles destined to wind up in laboratories and using Los Angeles as their port of entry. Since September, when the plight of these monkeys was exposed, monkey imports via Los Angeles have completely stopped. Since breeding monkeys is too expensive in the United States, the unregulated and illegal trade of importing monkeys into the United States has continued to increase. The United States is the largest importer of monkeys from the Philippines, Indonesia, Guyana and Kenya.SAEN was founded in 1996 to help end animal abuse in laboratories. The organization has exposed horrific animal cruelty and abuses in the laboratories of Michigan State University, University of Southern California, University of Washington, University of Florida, University of South Florida, and other schools and research facilities. The USDA has fined several of these laboratories, terminating primate experiments at the University of Toledo.In September, Conyers, 44, and Akhtar Hussain, a Guyana supplier, were charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty, Los Angeles City Attorney’s spokesman Frank Mateljan said.Conyers appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court while Hussain remains at large and was thought to be in Guyana. Each man faces up to six months in jail and a $20,000 fine if convicted.Mateljan said Hussain sold around two dozen primates to a buyer in Bangkok in February of 2008 and hired Conyers to deliver them.Conyers attempted to ship 14 Marmosets, five white-fronted Capuchins and six Squirrel Monkeys from Guyana to Bangkok through Miami, Los Angeles and then China, but the animals were refused transit in China because of an irregularity with shipping documents, Mateljan said.The case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ultimately handed over to Los Angeles prosecutors.“When you get to the point where there are dead animals and they’ve been in the plane for several hours, it gets to be a problem that we felt needed to be taken seriously,” Mateljan said. “This is definitely neglect and improper planning.” |
