Port-Louis, Mauritius - A British NGO, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), on Thursday launched an international campaign aimed at saving Mauritian monkeys ftom being exported for medical research.

The campaign, entitled 'Sauvons nos Singes' (Let’s save our monkeys) aims at making Mauritians aware of the fate of those monkeys.

'We ask them to back the efforts being made to stop this cruel trade of the export of monkeys everywhere in the world for experiments,' BUAV director, Mrs Michelle Thew said.

She said that the island was the second biggest country in the industry of research with at least 10,000 monkeys exported every year.

'Many ignore that these animals are ill-treated, dispossessed of their families and imprisoned in farms where they deliver babies which are exported to laboratories in USA and Europe,'  Mrs Thew added.

Pana 10/02/2012