HC Deb 01 December 1955 vol 546 cc253-5W
Mr. Viant

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation how many monkeys have been flown from India through London Airport each month during the present year; how many of these went to destinations in Britain; and to what countries were the rest of the monkeys flown.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

No information is available in official records of cargoes coming through London Airport, but I am informed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that the numbers given in the following table were cared for in the society's animal hostel at the airport. These figures probably include almost all the monkeys passing

the number of clinical examinations undertaken in cases where pneumoconiosis is not excluded by the results of the X-ray examination, and the number of cases in which a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis is or is not made at the clinical examination.

The figures are given in the following table:

through the airport; they also include a small percentage originating in countries other than India.

MONKEYS PASSING THROUGH LONDON AIRPORT
1955 Arrived For Destinations in U.K. For Destinations in U.S.A., Canada and Europe
January … 9,542 130 9,412
February … 8,579 225 8,354
March … 4,405 197 4,208
April … 4,906 6 4,900
May … 11,237 404 10,833
June … 9,879 500 9,379
July … 9,765 420 9,345
August … 12,170 160 12,010
September … 2,879 255 2,624
October … 3,326 344 2,982
November … 9,725 543 9,182
86,413 3,184 83,229

Mr. Viant

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation how many monkeys flown from India arrived at London Airport in each of the years 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954; and how many of these were in transit to the United States of America.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

No informaton is available in official records of cargoes coming to London Airport, and I am unable to give any figures in the form requested. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates, however, that from the opening of its animal hostel at London Airport in December, 1952, until the end of 1954, 82,520 monkeys were cared for in the hostel. Most of them were probably destined for the United States of America.