(JA)Wildlife faces human threat, and other monkey business

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Wildlife faces human threat, and other monkey business

 

Conservation groups are striving to raise public consciousness, and induce

the government to change the law, to end the pillaging of body parts for

profit.

 

Asahi Shimbun

January 24, 2001

 

Deciding what to do with wild animals captured because they are regarded as

a menace to humans has become a source of controversy, heightened by recent

revelations that some of these animals are treated inhumanely.

 

Conservation groups have discovered that captured Japanese monkeys are

routinely given to laboratories for experimentation. Investigations also

reveal that the gallbladders of Asiatic black bears are removed and sold for

a tidy profit.

 

The Ministry of Environment-unable to obtain a clear picture of the extent

of malpractice involving animals captured in the wild-is formulating a new

policy aimed at bringing more transparency to current handling procedures.

 

Under the policy, which is yet to be implemented, those who snare wild

animals deemed a menace to humans will have to complete a statement in

advance, explaining what they propose to do with the creatures.

 

Conservationists are demanding the mandatory cremation of any animal

destroyed for public safety reasons to stamp out the capturing of animals

for profit.

 

But research institutions oppose this, urging that the animals instead be

used for experiments.

 

No clear-cut guidelines currently govern the treatment of wild animals in

captivity. What happens to them has been left to hunters, leaving the

Ministry of Environment with only a vague grasp of their fate.

 

In summer 1999, it was revealed that for several years Aso-Kuju National

Park, Oita Prefecture, had donated to Oita Medical University more than 100

monkeys that inhabited the slopes of Mount Takamori. The primates were

captured without authorization, purely because they were said to pose a

nuisance to humans.

 

It further emerged that park officers were falsifying reports to the Oita

prefectural government, saying the captured monkeys had been released within

the park.

 

According to a survey of prefectural governments conducted in 1999 by the

animal conservation society All Life in a Viable Environment (ALIVE), only

five prefectures-among them Fukui, Mie and Shiga-were aware that some

captured animals were being given away for experimentation.

 

The handing over of captured animals for experimental purposes has since

been confirmed in prefectures that did not respond to the ALIVE survey.

 

The group estimates that across the nation between 1,000 and 2,000 monkeys a

year are taken for use in animal experiments.

 

Researchers, however, make no secret of the fact that captured monkeys are

highly valued in their work. A Japanese monkey nurtured for experimental

purposes will fetch anything from 200,000 yen to 300,000 yen if bought

through a professional dealer.

 

By contrast, a feral monkey will cost several tens of thousands of yen,

including the cost of shipping.

 

Over the past few years, it seems, the number of monkeys captured has risen

rapidly, reaching 9,000 to 10,000 at the latest count.

 

While many specimens are later shot, a university professor from the Kansai

region, speaking on condition of anonymity, deplored such wasteful action.

 

``Prices for monkeys have soared since quarantine regulations for imported

animals were tightened,'' he said. ``Feral monkeys, which carry various

viruses, are difficult to keep healthy. But they remain in great demand for

neurological research.''

 

The Asiatic black bear is in even greater demand. Animal welfare groups have

learned that more than 10,000 yen a gram has been paid for bear's dried

gallbladder-a Chinese medicine since ancient times.

 

A large male may yield more than 1 million yen in profit. Each year

nationwide, about 600 Asiatic black bears are destroyed on the grounds of

alleged danger to humans. The gallbladder is then removed from many of their

carcasses.

 

As if the bears' plight were not bad enough, the spring hunting season-just

after they emerge from hibernation-has come to be regarded as a normal

preventive mechanism for protecting human life and safety.

 

In some regions, more than 60 percent of the entire black-bear population is

said to have been destroyed for this purpose. In spring 1999, more than 70

Asiatic black bears were hunted in Akita Prefecture alone.

 

Amid this for the first time in five years the Ministry of Environment has

been revising the guidelines in its animal protection plan.

 

The new guidelines will probably be completed by fall and take effect from

2002.

 

Although the ministry has no means of enforcing the stipulation that captors

of dangerous animals explain their intentions in advance, its officers hope

the procedure will enable them to monitor the situation.

 

When it comes to the treatment of dangerous animals captured in the wild,

two sets of views are in striking contrast.

 

Animal conservation groups are calling upon the government to outrightly ban

experiments involving monkeys and to make it legally mandatory for animals

that are destroyed to be put down in the least painful way. They also demand

the animals be cremated afterward.

 

These organizations are urging others, both in Japan and abroad, to send

petitions to the Ministry of Environment urging it to endorse legislation

along these lines.

 

Other groups including the Physiological Society of Japan, disagree,

however. Instead, they call for any monkeys that are destroyed to be used in

scientific experiments.

 

Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or

republication without written permission.