NST Letter Today on Monkey Trade

NST Letters 2007/11/06
Monkey exports: Animal hell awaits them

By N Surendran for Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society (ROAR), Kuala Lumpur.

At a market rate abroad of about RM300 per monkey, the trade will be unstoppable.
I AM appalled by the suggestion by Datuk Musa Nordin of Kajang that Malaysia should go ahead with the export of monkeys ("The best option is to export" - NST, Nov 1).

Musa argues that only urban monkeys will be trapped and exported for biomedical research. This is inaccurate. Research labs abroad are not interested in urban monkeys which are not suitable as test subjects as they may carry certain diseases.

With the lifting of the ban, healthy jungle monkeys will be trapped and exported in large numbers. At a market rate abroad of about RM300 per monkey, the trade will be unstoppable. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks does not have the resources to police the trade once the exports are allowed to go ahead.It is disturbing to think how these intelligent creatures are to be plucked from their natural habitats, crammed into tiny cages and sold abroad for medical experimentation.

At the labs, they will be injected with chemicals, implanted with wires and suffer repeated surgeries. Mostly, no painkillers are used. In short, our monkeys will be consigned to what can only be described as an animal hell. It is a myth to say that all this cruelty benefits mankind.

The test animals are in such a state of fear and stress that the results are error-ridden and unreliable.

There are better non-animal research alternatives, such as epidemiological studies, population studies, cell and tissue cultures and clinical investigations of ill people. These methods are also cheaper and more efficient.

Local wildlife conservation groups have proposed alternatives to control the macaque population, such as sterilisation, relocation and, as a last resort, culling. This should be carried out in tandem with better management of the environment to reduce loss of monkey habitats, which forces monkeys to gravitate towards urban areas to survive. For the monkeys, being exported is a fate worse than death.

For Malaysia, it will mean a loss of reputation as we become known as a monkey-trading nation. Surely we are not a poverty-stricken nation which needs to make money from such a despicable trade.

PETPOSITIVE NOTE: Surendran is also Legal Adviser to Petpositive. The Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association is also dead-against the monkey trade.