News from Malaysia

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September 21, 2007

 

AFP

 

 

Malaysian opposition slams lifting ban on macaque exports

 

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's opposition on Thursday slammed the lifting

of an export ban on long tailed macaques, saying the monkeys faced

being slaughtered for food or suffering horribly in experiments.

 

The government said last month it had lifted a 23-year ban on the

export of the inquisitive monkeys because they have become a menace

in urban areas, creating havoc by attacking people and stealing food.

 

" These poor wildlife primates will be destined for the cooking pot

and be subjected to horrendous suffering in ... laboratories, "

Democratic Action Party vice-chairman M. Kula Segaran said in a statement.

 

He also said that exports could breach wildlife protection

legislation as the monkeys are listed in the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

 

Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said last month that there were more

than 258,000 macaques living in urban areas in peninsular Malaysia

and nearly 484,000 in the wild.

 

Newspapers have reported that the government is in negotiations to

export the primates to Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Segaran said that Azmi should make clear who would profit financially

from the export of macaques, and say whether it had considered more

humane methods like sterilization or human culling.

 

As many as 10,000 macaques were exported each year in the 1970s,

mainly for laboratory research in the United States and Europe and to

other countries as exotic food or pets.

 

The trade led to a drop in the macaque population and subsequently

forced the government to impose the ban in the mid-1980s.

 

<http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/2007/09/21/123438/Malaysian-opposition.htm>htt\

p://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/2007/09/21/123438/Malaysian-opposition.htm

 

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, Founder

International Primate Protection League

PO Box 766

Summerville, SC 29484, USA

Phone - 843-871-2280, Fax- 843-871-7988

 

E-mail - smcgreal, Web: www.ippl.org

Working to Protect All Primates Since 1973

 

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly

making exciting discoveries. ~ AA Milne