Companies acknowledge depth of public feeling

Major Chinese airlines were among the first businesses to join the efforts to slow the trade in laboratory animals. Many have acknowledged the turning tide of global public opinion against the use of primates in experiments and now refuse to transport them.

In March 2014, China Southern Airlines banned the shipment of live primates for laboratory experiments, although it had previously transported animals, mainly monkeys, to facilities in the United States and European Union.

The move followed a decision by China Eastern Airlines, which stopped transporting lab-use primates in early 2013.