Resources & Archives

The International Primate Protection League

(Fall 2001)—In 1973, Shirley McGreal, EdD, was living in Bangkok, Thailand. She saw first-hand the inhumane treatment of baby monkeys who were being readied for shipment to overseas laboratories. This, coupled with her new-found awareness of how infants were captured in the wild, compelled Dr. McGreal to found the International Primate Protection League (IPPL).

IPPL’s goal is to protect primates in their natural habitats, to prevent the illegal traffic of all primates, and to create and preserve national parks and sanctuaries. IPPL draws its members from some 60 countries, and has field representatives in 31 countries. IPPL also works with other sanctuaries, such as the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameron, where primates are rescued from "bushmeat" and smuggling rackets.

IPPL members monitor primates in laboratories and zoos, and conduct highly effective letter-writing campaigns. The IPPL sanctuary in Summerville, SC, is home to 30 gibbons formerly used as "research subjects" – including the gentle Beanie who is blind as a result of contracting encephalitis as a one-year old.

Work by IPPL and its allies led to ending Malaysian monkey exports and bans on the export of all primates from Thailand and on importation of smuggled wildlife in Poland. They also exposed the cruel use of Rhesus monkeys from India in U.S. radiation experiments and the U.S. military’s chemical and biological warfare and head-smashing experiments on primates. In 1996, IPPL uncovered a Pakistani smuggling ring and rescued two drills who were subsequently returned to Nigeria for rehabilitation to the wild.

Dr. McGreal was chosen for the United Nation’s Environment Program’s Global 500 Honor Role in 1992.

Action Alert!
> Kraft Foods Commercials
> Help pass H.1252
> Chimps in Commercials

Your support saves animal and human lives.


The State of the Anti-Vivisection Movement in America