A Nevada-based small fleet has come under fire from animal rights activists after getting two new citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture relating to the carrier's transport of live monkeys.
JKL Secure Freight (the dba name for LR Transport LLC) racked up two new citations from USDA in January, which brings the total to 10 total citations in the last four years, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
The new citations ding JKL for violating the Animal Welfare Act by twice failing to maintain valid health certificates after transporting monkeys across state lines, and failing to check on monkeys every four hours during transport as required.
"JKL Secure Freight has proven time and again -- 10 times in the last four years, to be exact -- that it cannot or will not comply with the minimum standards set by USDA regulations or animal welfare laws," said PETA Chief Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel.
Apparently, the monkeys themselves weren't just in danger (previous incidents involved the death of monkeys in the fleet's care), but humans too.
"Records PETA obtained from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette show that a January 8, 2025, shipment included monkeys imported from Mauritius, a country known for tuberculosis outbreaks," Jones-Engel continued. "At least two animals at the university were positive for Shigella and were untreated before transport. Yet JKL couldn’t produce the required USDA health certificates, leaving no reliable way to know which animals were infected, where they were going, or who and what they may have exposed along the way."
Overdrive looked into the citations, and while they can cary a civil penalty of $10,000, there's no sign JKL actually got penalized.
Both citations in January simply advised JKL to "Correct by 23 February 2026 for all future nonhuman primate shipments."
Somehow, JKL keeps getting work in the monkey business.
"That the company remains a go-to transporter for laboratory suppliers proves that the animal experimentation industry is dangerous," the PETA rep said. PETA opposes most research on animals, regardless of how they're transported.
JKL advertises itself as a "US DOT licensed ground transporter with over 15 years of experience in transportation and laboratory animal science" on labratoryscienceanimalsbuyersguide.com.
The company's listing continues: "Our Animal Care Technicians always go in teams of two so that your animals will arrive safely and as quickly as possible."
Overdrive reached out to both JKL and the University of Louisiana Lafayette, but didn't hear back from either.
A quick look at JKL's Safer company snapshot shows the carrier doesn't do much better in garden variety roadside inspections than USDA inspections. While the company's vehicle OOS rate (25%) is just a hair above the national average, but the fleet's driver OOS rate of 36% is nearly six times higher than the national rate.
A look at the carrier's CSA SMS profile shows one reason why -- inspectors have hit them with more than a few hours-of-service dings.
Two are "false logs" violations of 49 CFR 395.8(e), which will be under the microscope more than usual for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's annual Roadcheck blitz. Keep it on the calendar: fast on the way May 12-14.
[Related: ELD tampering, 'false logs' in focus for Roadcheck, dates set]
