Protest spreads to Sweden

Date: 14-Nov-1993
Paper Page: 6
Publication: Sunday Sun-Supplement
Byline:


THE PROTEST of monkey trading here has spread to Sweden.

Despite bone-chilling cold, Swedish animal activists held a "beach party" in
Stockholm wearing only shorts and short-sleeved shirts to protest Barbados'
involvement in the trade.

"We'd rather party here in the cold than go to Barbados and St. Kitts, as long
as they continue to ship monkeys to experiments in Europe and the USA," said
Karin Gabrielson, information officer of the Swedish Society Against Painful
Experiments on Animals.

The protest, begun in London, has spread to Sweden where Christmas shoppers
saw the barely clad revellers in front of a travel agency which specialises in
Caribbean holidays.

The protesters stayed outside for more than an hour despite the temperatures
-- minus three degrees Celsius -- just to draw attention to their campaign.

Many Stockholm shoppers stopped to look at photos and a typical monkey case
made of wood and wire mesh. They signed cards to be sent to the islands'
tourist authorities.

The Swedes complained of the trapping and exporting of monkeys for research.

British animal rights investigators secretly filmed hundreds of wild monkeys
in rows of small cages at the Barbados Wildlife Preserve.