Cruel slaughter of monkeys in Malaysia: please protest

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BACKGROUND | SOURCE THE STAR ONLINE

MALACCA: The culling of almost 100,000 long-tailed macaques last year by the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) has turned into a controversy, with the decision being challenged here.

Kota Melaka MCA complaint bureau deputy chief Dr Yee Kok Wah said he found out that Johor topped the list with 20,600 of the primates culled, followed by Selangor (18,800), Perak (16,000), Kedah (13,000), Pahang (8,100) and Negri Sembilan (8,000).

The total number culled last year was 97,200, up from 87,900 in 2011.

“The primates should not have been exterminated as they were not diseased.

“We need to create a colony for them so that the monkeys can be relocated.

“We have a moral responsibility to look after the primates.

“They will not pose a danger to humans if they are relocated to the jungle,” he told The Star.

Dr Yee said Kyoto University’s Juichi Yamagiwa, who is president of the International Primatological Society, had found that the transmission of virus between humans and macaques was very rare.

“As such, the mass culling of macaques here should be stopped.

“The primates are being driven to extinction,” he added.

Dr Yee said there was a report saying that captured wild macaques from Malaysia had ended up on dinner plates in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, or in research laboratories.

Long-tailed macaques are native to Malaysia and considered opportunistic feeders, and can adapt well to the urban environment.

A Perhilitan official, when contacted, explained that the primates were exterminated through an internationally accepted culling method to control “a population that far exceeded the proportionate capacity of its habitat”.

He said the culling, conducted by trained game rangers, was carried out where human-macaque conflicts were most serious.

He denied that the macaques were killed by deliberate drowning as alleged by some quarters, adding that standard operating procedures were adhered to.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Protests can be registered with the Malaysian Embassy in your country of residence. All Malaysia’s embassies are listed at http://my.embassyinformation.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Ambassador,

I am disturbed to learn that greater than 150,000 macaque monkeys have been slaughtered in Malaysia. It is my understanding that the government wants to reduce the population and has set kill quotas for every state.

I am therefore respectfully urging you cancel these unjustified and cruel culls. Macaque monkeys are marvelously intelligent and sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering; when you subject them to such barbaric treatments, you not only condemn them to fear,agony, and death, but you also demean yourself and establish that you are unsympathetic and discompassionate.

Indeed, this type of mass killing using such a brutal type of slaughter in such a central and visible location would certainly adversely affect both visitation and tourism; it would be detrimental to continue with such a cruel and unnecessary killing, and although I do not currently reside in Malaysia, I would be unwilling to consider it, or nearby, as a potential vacation destination if this cull continues.

Please instead examine alternative, non-lethal options. “The primates should not have been exterminated as they were not diseased. We need to create a colony for them so that the monkeys can be relocated. We have a moral responsibility to look after the primates. They will not pose a danger to humans if they are relocated to the jungle,” he [Dr. Yee Kok Wah] told The Star Online.

I know your time is limited and I want to thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal; I look forward to a positive resolution to this situation.

NAME

we are innocent primates,
we are macaques,
and once you kill all of us,
there is no coming back.
you slaughter, you murder,
not out of logic, but fear.
manunkind, human race
what you doing here!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson