Please give a thought before killing

[Guest guest]

Dear Sir,

 

I am an animal advocate from Greece and I would like to express my

concern on the issue that occured involving the Rhesus Macaque (as

identified by Prof. Colin Groves at the ANU), which is coming to your

country. It is understandable and indisputable that your intention is to

protect the health and safety of your country's people. However, in this

case tests have not been carried out to see if the monkey has diseases.

It may be disease-free as other monkeys coming into Australia in the

past have been. If the monkey is disease-free then there should be

little involvement from AQIS as their role is to prevent the spread of

diseases.

What is really more worrying is that, as nowadays is known, non

human primates are more at risk of getting diseases from humans than

humans are of getting diseases from these monkeys. So if the monkey has

a disease it more than likely he got it from one of the humans on board

in the shipping vessels. From this point of view, if this monkey is

euthanised because of disease (or fear of disease), then all humans on

that boat should be tested before it enters Australian waters. On the

other hand, this poor animal did not ask to be in this position. It may

be totally healthy and could be placed in Australia, causing no problems.

You are kindly requested to take under consideration the above

thoughts (which many animal advocates around the world support and have

expressed). It it certainly better for the animal as well as your

country's image and reputation to find a humane, compassionate and

scientific solution to the matter, instead of just killing a harmless

creature, taking the easy way out on the issue.

 

Sincerely yours,

Katerina and Maria Nika,

Animal advocates from Greece