FW: (MY) monkey export ban not lifted?

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yitzeling [yitzeling]

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 11:57 AM

aapn ; animal_net

(MY) monkey export ban not lifted?

 

Wednesday September 5, 2007-The Star

 

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.