The Star: Monkey Ban Reimposed

Sunday June 8, 2008

Ban on export of macaque reimposed

By HILARY CHIEW

PETALING JAYA: The Cabinet has reinstated the export ban on the protected long-tailed macaque, ending months of uncertainty about the fate of about 250,000 ‘urban’ monkeys that are in demand as exotic food in East Asia and in laboratories in the West.

Confirming that the Cabinet made the decision last month, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said:

“The decision was taken to reverse the earlier lifting of the ban after considering the arguments and views of the various groups. A Cabinet paper on how to tackle the human-macaque conflict, especially in the urban areas, was submitted and approved as well.

“An allocation of RM1.6mil has been made to Perhilitan (Department of Wildlife and National Parks) to resolve the conflict either by relocating or culling those problematic monkeys. Perhilitan will be presenting its action plan to the ministry next week.”

There had been fierce objections from animal rights and conservation groups when the ban was lifted last June. Citing the nuisance and danger posed by monkeys living in small pockets of forests in the cities, Douglas’ predecessor Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid had recommended the 23-year-old ban be lifted.

Azmi later conceded to the demands of critics and agreed to reinstate the ban but never got around to submitting the request to the Cabinet prior to the general election.

While the issue was in limbo, it is learnt that about 2,000 macaques were captured by a company that sold the export idea to Azmi. The monkeys were held at the exporter’s facility in Ulu Piah, Perak, pending shipment.

Douglas said Perhilitan had been instructed to look into the systematic release of the captured macaques back to the jungles.

Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Assocation (Roar) president N. Surendran, who had led the protest, welcomed the decision as the first step towards a more humane way of handling human-wildlife conflict.

“Besides relocation which could end up transferring the problem to another area, the authorities should consider sterilisation to control the population. Culling should be the last option and existing green spaces should be left alone as buffer zones between human settlement and wildlife habitat.

“Exporting the macaques should never be an option. Our wildlife should never be exploited for profit,” he added.

According to Wildlife Department’s statistics, one-third of the country's 742,000 long-tailed macaque in the country are found in city areas, including Kuala Lumpur.

In 1984, the Government banned the export of the macaque after their peninsula population dropped 25% between 1957 and 1975, when their trade was unregulated and the monkeys were routinely caught for export to exotic food kitchens in East Asia and animal-testing laboratories in the West.

End.

Note: N Surendran is also Petpositive's legal adviser.

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.

Monkey Business 2

Focus
Tuesday September 11, 2007


Making a quick buck

THE problem posed by “urban” monkeys highlights the lack of a management plan, and this has allowed the problem to deteriorate over the last 20 years.

The genus Macaca shares the same problem throughout its range state – one that is created by man.


The lucky ones: Wildlife and National Parks Department deputy director Celescoriano Razond pointing to monkeys that were recently rescued from an orchard in Pontian, Johor.
“The macaque is under threat due to human encroachment upon its habitat. In countries other than Malaysia, efforts are being made, from documenting the extent of the problem to proposing and testing ways in which to minimise it.

“Many people are coming into contact with macaques for the first time and need to be educated on the proper ways to minimise interaction,” wrote Dr Ardith Eudey of the World Conservation Union’s Action Plan for Asian Primates.

Eudey said Hong Kong and Singapore have embarked on positive educational and control programmes. Malaysia, he added, has the economic resources to initiate a constructive programme rather than resort to destructive actions.

He has invited Malaysia to participate in the next Congress of the International Primatological Society to be held in Edinburgh in August 2008, when the pest problem posed by macaques will be examined in detail.

Critics are not convinced that rounding up macaques in urban areas is a long-term solution as the fundamental problem of habitat loss would remain unresolved. Take the case of Barbados. Despite trapping and exporting 10,000 vervet monkeys for research over 14 years, crop raiding has not been reduced and the monkey population remains stable due to high breeding rates.

Some think it is a ruse to obtain wild specimens, which are preferred for research purposes. Eudey pointed out that “urban” monkeys are not desirable as they have been in contact with humans.

“A country such as the United States wants clean monkeys, meaning captivebred, for research purposes,” he said. Former Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director-general Mohd Khan Momin Khan said it was a misconception that there was a demand for macaques caught from urban areas.

“Urban monkeys are known to have tuberculosis and assorted intestinal diseases.

They do not make good test subjects and are not appealing to exotic food importers. Eventually, senseless poaching of wild monkeys will ensue to fill the demands of importers,” he warned.

Mohd Khan, who helmed Perhilitan between 1972 and 1992 and was instrumental in getting the 1984 trade ban, said the decision to legalise export has undermined the hard work of primate conservation groups.

“India and Bangladesh are maintaining the ban. Only the Philippines and Indonesia are exporting captive-born monkeys following strict international guidelines. Malaysia will be the only country to drop out of this international pact and become a monkey exporter,” he said.

Exploitation of wild population

A source said with a price tag of RM250 per macaque, indiscriminate hunting will rule. He claimed that Perhilitan had never embarked on a thorough sterilisation programme.

As a short-term measure, he suggested a combination of culling and sterilisation to contain the problem in high conflict areas.

Although Perhilitan is drafting guidelines on the capture and export of the longtailed macaque, many doubt that it will have sufficient resources to monitor the hunt.

Conservationists and animal rights activist prefer culling to reduce the number of long-tailed macaques, saying it was a more humane solution than trading the monkeys for use as food or medical testing.

They fear that profit may motivate the decision to allow export of the animal.

“The very fact that the Malaysian government has ruled out culling suggests that there may be financial motivation involved.

It also looks like the government is attempting to create an export market,” said Eudey.

Mohd Khan questioned the assertion by the authorities that “it is better to export than to cull”.

“Better for whom?” he asked. “Follow the money trail and trace who the benefactors are.”

Last week, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid candidly told participants at a climate change workshop that he had been approached by “some bright people who saw that money could be made from exporting monkeys”.

Sources said the proposal to export monkeys came up prior to the retirement of Perhilitan director-general, Datuk Musa Nordin, last October. In a telephone interview, Musa said he was “indirectly involved” in the trade but declined to comment when asked if he had teamed up with a wildlife trader.

When pressed further, he said: “Go talk to Perhilitan. They’re the one making the policy. I’ve retired.”

Sources reveal that at least one company has submitted a business plan to the ministry proposing an export volume of between 12,000 and 20,000 monkeys per year. Each shipment will carry between 2,000 and 2,500 specimens.

The business plan lists the likely buyers as two laboratories and one breeding centre in China. One of the laboratories is Kunming Primate Research Centre, which is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The centre was set up in 2005 as a research base for experiments against infectious diseases and bio-terrorism. – By Hilary Chiew and S.S. Yoga

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Monkey Business

Focus
Tuesday September 11, 2007


Monkey business

By HILARY CHIEW

Animal rights groups object to the trade in longtailed macaques for fear that a cruel fate awaits the monkeys in testing facilities.

IN 1984, the government banned the export of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) amidst international outcry against the abuse of the monkeys in bio-medical and military laboratories in the United States.

An international syndicate was capturing and smuggling the monkeys primarily for US scientific testing needs. More than 300,000 long-tailed macaques from Peninsular Malaysia were exported over 25 years from 1959, until the ban was instituted.


Scavenger: A monkey going through garbage in search of food. Urban monkeys are regarded as pests by some.
Now, it looks like the safeguard for the protected species has been overturned. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid announced on Aug 17 that the Cabinet had, on June 27, decided to allow the export of long-tailed macaques captured from urban areas.

Azmi cited macaque attacks on humans and the failure of relocation and sterilisation programmes as reasons for lifting the trade ban on macaques in urban areas. He ruled out culling because “it is cruel to shoot them”.

He said the public must not get emotional over the issue and challenged animal rights groups to come up with suggestions to the long-standing human-macaque conflict.

The SPCA Selangor, Malaysian Animal Assisted Therapy for Disabled Association, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership have grouped under an umbrella body called the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society (Roar), and submitted a memorandum to the minister demanding the reinstatement of the ban and a halt on all pending macaque shipments. They also lodged a police report against Azmi and ministry officials for violating Section 92(f) of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972.

Referring to the insufferable fate that macaques undergo at animal-testing facilities overseas, they said ministry officials were themselves committing cruelty against wildlife. Roar conceded that if there was a serious macaque over-population problem, sterilisation and humane culling were better options.

Malaysians got a foretaste of the sickly nature of the trade when over 1,000 longtailed macaques bound for export were uncovered in a horrifying state in an orchard in Pontian, Johor, early July.

About 100 rotting carcasses were found by wildlife officers. Three locals and an Indonesian were arrested, and Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) is still investigating the case. Surviving animals were released into jungles.

Biological warfare

The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) has long documented the cruelty in the use of non-human primates in scientific experiments. It found wasteful experimentation, incompetence and neglect of monkeys used for tests between 1979 and 1981, in the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

IPPL’s campaigns have led to halts in macaque trade in several countries. IPPL chairperson Dr Shirley McGreal said the Malaysian ban was preceded by Thailand in 1975, India in 1977 and Bangladesh in 1979.

Recently, IPPL was alerted to the renewed use of non-human primates for tests, this time in Chinese laboratories. Long-tailed macaques are being massively traded in China and most of the creatures originate from Cambodia and Vietnam.

US Fish and Wildlife Services statistics reveal that 26,638 primates were imported last year, a 44% increase over the 2004 figures of 18,534. Topping the list were long-tailed macaques (24,480).


Good till the last drop: A monkey enjoying a discarded canned drink.
“The trade escalated in 2006 when 2,532 monkeys, purportedly bred in Cambodia, reached the US. ‘IPPL has received reports on alleged unsatisfactory conditions at these facilities and suspicions that wild-caught monkeys are being exported on fake ‘captive-born’ documents,” said McGreal.

There is concern that the present trade is to facilitate bio-weapon experiments. Fresh funding for Fort Detrick is being channelled towards the use of non-human primates for exposure to the Ebola virus, ricin, anthrax and radio-frequency radiation, among others.

Being physiologically closest to humans, primates are ideal candidates for vaccine efficacy studies.

McGreal said Malaysians needed to know that indigenous monkeys from the country were likely to be sold to these labs.

“They will suffer horribly during the laboratory experiment. There is no way of conducting research humanely when dealing with biological warfare agents.”

As long-tailed macaque is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), Perhilitan has produced a non-detrimental finding (NDF) to show that the trade will not have a deleterious effect on the species’ survival.

According to the NDF, there are 258,406 macaques in urban areas and 483,747 at forest fringes.

Many people are suspicious of the exact numbers of the tally, which quite impossible to determine in the wildlife inventory. Population estimates normally appear as a range.

Some questioned the motive behind the NDF exercise because Malaysia has not produced any NDF for all the Appendix II species that it trades in, such as the monitor lizard and reticulated python. A wildlife trade observer said the NDF appears to be an exercise to facilitate the issuance of Cites export permits. He expects the findings to be challenged by the scientific and conservation communities.

It is learnt that the study was conducted between March and June. To get rid of the 179,120 monkeys purportedly found in high conflict zone in urban centres, a removal rate ranging from 20% to 90% over five years was suggested. A 90% extraction will see only 31 monkeys left in urban areas by the end of the plan.


Copyright © 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
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Memorandum on Monkeys

Don’t treat wildlife as ‘economic units’
N Surendran
Sep 5, 07 3:56pm Adjust font size:

Animal rights and welfare groups, political parties and the Malaysian public are deeply concerned over the decision of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to lift the ban on the trade of Malaysian long-tailed macaques.

The reasons given the by the ministry are that the export of macaques is necessary to control the macaque population and to prevent humane-macaque conflict. We find the above excuses completely unacceptable.


What evidence has the ministry produced proving that there is a serious overpopulation problem?


How is it possible that there is an overpopulation problem when in fact macaque habitats have been progressively destroyed due to indiscriminate development?


Why not use humane methods, if at all there is a real population problem, such as sterilisation or humane culling?


How does the ministry justify the extreme cruelty that we know macaques are subjected to during transport overseas?


How does the ministry justify the horrendous suffering that macaques will undergo at animal testing/research facilities overseas?


How does the ministry justify the cruel slaughter of these poor animals for the pot overseas?


How does the ministry justify the inevitable increase in the regional market, both legal and illegal, for exotic wild life as a result of the lifting of the ban?
In particular, who is to profit financially from the export of macaques and their torture and death? Which company or companies will profit from the trade and who are its owners?

Macaques are highly intelligent and social animals. The suffering they will undergo if they are captured and exported is simply unimaginable. Macaque mothers tend to their offspring like human mothers do. It is unethical and immoral to subject our macaques to the horrible process of capture, transportation, torture and death overseas. There is much evidence available of the regime of cruelty at animals testing labs and at restaurants.

Mass capture and export overseas is not the solution to any alleged overpopulation problem. The environment and its indigenous fauna must be managed with a long-term vision and with respect and compassion for wildlife. Wildlife cannot be treated as if they were economic units or merchandise for money-making.

No country can call itself civilised when it ill-treats its wildlife in so cruel a manner. We call upon Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Azmi Khalid to:

Immediately restore the ban on trade of macaques;


Halt all pending macaque shipments overseas;


Release all macaques currently in captivity and awaiting transportation;


Consult with animal welfare groups and experts to humanely respond to macaque problems.
The above letter is signed by the SPCA Selangor, the Malaysian Animal Assisted Theraphy for Disabled Association (PetPositive), PKR, the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society (Roar) and the Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership (Marpo).


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Pet+ pressure reveals Monkey Ban still on

Nation
Wednesday September 5, 2007


Monkey export ban not lifted

By LOH FOON FONG

KUALA LUMPUR: The ban on the export of the long-tailed macaque has not been lifted, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid clarified.

“I did not use the word 'lift'. The media quoted me wrongly,” he told a press conference during the Malaysian Energy and Climate Change Dialogue yesterday.

Instead, he said, only monkeys in the cities would be caught and exported.

On Aug 18, Azmi was quoted as saying that the Cabinet had in June agreed to lift the ban on the export of the monkeys found in urban areas, as there were numerous complaints that the monkeys had stolen food and attacked people.

“The proposal to catch and export the monkeys was only to reduce their numbers in cities because they are causing problems,” he said, adding that the monkey population in Malaysia was more than 700,000, with 250,000 in urban areas.

“We don’t allow the monkeys from the jungle to be caught and exported,” he added.

Catching those in the cities and exporting them did not mean the export ban was lifted, he explained.

“We are only controlling the numbers in the cities. People can catch them and do what they want with them. If they want to export them, we allow it,” he said.

Asked whether licences had been issued to exporters of monkeys caught in the cities, Azmi said no. He said the Government had moved the monkeys to their natural habitat but they seldom survived because the monkeys there would kill them.

Efforts to sterilise these monkeys did not work because those not sterilised bred quickly, he added.

HILARY CHEW meanwhile reports that the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society’s (Roar) president N. Surendransaid the minister’s explanation was highly confusing and misleading.

Roar is the umbrella body of local animal rights groups.

“Allowing urban monkeys to be hunted almost certainly will lead to trapping of monkeys in the jungle,” he said, adding that the group doubted the Wildlife Department would have enough resources to monitor the hunting or the capability to differentiate between urban and jungle monkeys.

Roar yesterday handed a memorandum to Azmi demanding that the minister reinstate the ban.

Copyright © 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
Managed by I.Star.