Long-tailed macaques are being trapped in the wild, stuffed into mesh bags and wooden crates, and smuggled across Southeast Asian borders — often on the same routes and boats used to move guns and drugs. Many of these monkeys are then falsely labeled "captive-bred" and sold into the U.S. research industry, which imports tens of thousands of monkeys a year to supply its labs.

This isn't a small-scale problem. Authorities in Thailand have intercepted more than 400 endangered macaques being trafficked toward Cambodia since the start of 2025 alone, and past investigations have uncovered schemes in Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and Laos where wild-caught monkeys were laundered through false paperwork. Every animal caught up in this trade pushes long-tailed macaques closer to extinction in the wild.

The consequences don't stop at conservation. Monkeys pulled from the wild and shipped through smuggling networks arrive with no health records and no way to verify what diseases they carry — including tuberculosis, Herpes B, and other illnesses that can spread to humans.

The Preventing Risky Importation of Monkeys to Avoid Toxic Exposures (PRIMATE) Act would end the importation of monkeys for experimentation, cutting off the demand that fuels this trafficking pipeline and protecting an endangered species at the same time.

Sign the petition to demand action on the PRIMATE Act now — before long-tailed macaques are trafficked to extinction.