Published November 6, 2025 by Keith Brown. Last Updated November 18, 2025.

PETA has gotten wind through multiple sources that monkey importation and experimentation colossus Charles River Laboratories has convinced the U.S. government to reopen a monkey supply pipeline from Cambodia, despite well-documented and widespread smuggling and laundering of wild-caught macaques falsely labeled as captive-bred.

This cannot happen. PETA is strongly urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to suspend and permanently ban monkey imports from Cambodia immediately.

In early 2023, Fish and Wildlife suspended the importation of monkeys from Cambodia following Charles River’s importation of 1,269 monkeys from Cambodia that the company could not prove were not illegally abducted from forests. Its own 5-year investigation found that tens of thousands of these macaques were illegally stolen from the forests to fill U.S. laboratories.

Now it appears that Charles River has cozied up to former Department of the Interior head David Bernhardt to use his influence to help grease the skids to reopen the Cambodian pipeline.

Bernhardt oversaw the Fish and Wildlife Service’s five-year investigation into the Cambodian monkey trade during the first Trump administration, and he is well aware of the widespread smuggling and laundering that the Service found. But he has been busy since leaving his government job.

In March, he was seen alongside Charles River CEO Keven McNelly, touring Cambodian monkey breeding facilities. In January, he formed Actual Resources Solutions LLC, and has since been identified by whistleblowers as arranging upcoming shipments of monkeys from Cambodia.

Cole Rojewski, a former director of congressional and legislative affairs at the Department of the Interior, leads Actual Resources’ lobbying work. Bernhardt has taken an active role, including traveling to Cambodia with Charles River executives and meeting with officials from Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

A recent financial report shows Actual Resources spent $80,000 lobbying Congress on “issues related to supply chain services.”

Lobbying is not illegal. But it raises questions about whether a push to reopen the Cambodian monkey trade is the result of possible influence peddling, rather than scientific or conservation concerns.

There’s also this: those 1,269 imported monkeys that were likely illegally wild-caught?   They were released back to Charles River in July 2025, two months after Bernhardt was seen in Cambodia with the Charles River bigwig and the same month he formed the new firm. There is still no indication that Charles River ever provided proof of legal sourcing.

Monkey Extinction and Biosecurity Risks

The feds agreement with Charles River’s apparent plan would speed the extinction of long-tailed macaques, a favorite of experimenters. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s leading experts on species extinction, last month reaffirmed that long-tailed macaques are an endangered species. They’ve lost 50-70 percent of their numbers over the past 30 years. Habitat loss and laboratory demand are chiefly responsible.

A burn pile containing diseased long-tailed macaques at a monkey breeding warehouse in Cambodia that received smuggled monkeys and supplied U.S. laboratories.

Cambodian monkey imports have also demonstrated a grave danger to public health and biosecurity. Exported primates from Cambodia have repeatedly tested positive for tuberculosis and Herpes B, a virus that can cause fatal encephalitis in humans through bites or scratches.

In 2021, at least four monkeys released from quarantine in Texas were found infected with Burkholderia pseudomallei. The bacteria are a Tier 1 bioterrorism agent that can kill one in two people. For months, it can be shed by primates through waste, blood, and saliva, creating prolonged exposure risks for workers and surrounding communities.

What You Can Do

Charles River must not be allowed to restart importing monkeys from Cambodia. The overwhelming evidence of industry-wide illegality, irrefutable species decline, and known public health risks should far outweigh the runaway greed of Charles River execs looking to make another quick buck.

Please TAKE ACTION and tell the Department of Health & Human Services to close the monkey import pipeline today!