(MY) illegal monkey exports

[Guest guest]

Investigations called on possible illegal export of local primates - The

Malay Mail

Submitted by amir azree on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

 

- British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

(Buav)<http://www.mmail.com.my/category/tags/british-union-abolition-vivisection\

-buav>

- illegally

exported<http://www.mmail.com.my/category/tags/illegally-exported>

- Laos <http://www.mmail.com.my/category/tags/laos>

- Local <http://www.mmail.com.my/category/channel/news/local>

- long-tailed

macaques<http://www.mmail.com.my/category/tags/longtailed-macaques>

 

NGO questions if the protected long-tailed macaques are being exported to

Laos

Darshini Kandasamy <http://www.mmail.com.my/source/darshini-kandasamy>

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 11:52:00

[image: munky] <http://www.mmail.com.my/content/32667-munky>

 

PETRIFIED: A long-tailed macaque and her baby huddle in fear at Laos's

largest monkey farm where they await their fate Pic: Buav

 

*KUALA LUMPUR:* An international animal welfare organisation is raising

questions on whether locally protected long-tailed macaques are being

illegally exported to a monkey-breeding farm in Laos.

 

This farm is said to be the largest monkey farm in the region.

 

*The Malay Mail *learnt that the Laotian farm owner's son and workers had

told investigators from UK-based British Union for the Abolition of

Vivisection (Buav), that over the past few years, the company had imported a

number of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) from Malaysia for use

as their original breeding stock.

 

Macaca fascicularis, which has been listed in the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites)

appendix, is a protected species in Malaysia and, their export to other

countries is not permitted.

 

Buav Special Projects director Sarah Kite told *The Malay Mail* " During the

Buav investigation into the primate trade in Laos, our investigators were

informed by the farm owners and workers, that a large number of wild-caught,

long-tailed macaques had been imported from Malaysia in recent years to

establish the farm. " She said, according to the Cites database, there is no

record of the export of these macaques from Malaysia over the past 10 years,

not even during the 2007 window in which the Natural Resources and

Environment Ministry had lifted its 23-year ban on the capture and export of

long-tailed macaques from the peninsular due to the complaint that their

population had become a nuisance and danger to people.

 

The lift was revoked after it received nationwide and international

criticism from wildlife groups, enthusiasts and the public.

 

" We are, therefore, extremely concerned that these monkeys may have been

transported illegally across the border, " said Kite.

 

Buav urged the Malaysian authorities to investigate the matter to ensure

that the country's wildlife is protected and that " the forests of Malaysia

are not being plundered to supply macaques for the international research

industry via the back door " .

 

A search on the the United Nations Environment Programme and World

Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) species database yielded no

documented export of long-tailed macaques from Malaysia to Laos.

 

In its investigation into the farm, Buav claimed it uncovered a massive and

expanding primate trade feeding the international research industry, and

described it as " a disturbing picture of animal suffering, along with

serious concerns over the conservation status of the long-tailed macaque in

Southeast Asia and Laos' compliance with Cites " .

 

Buav stated that it found the monkeys housed in overcrowded cages or small

pens with no meaningful enrichment, among other forms of mistreatment, and

stressed that action is needed by Cites and relevant governments to address

the largely unregulated trade of macaques in Southeast Asia.

 

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) deputy

director-general I, Misliah Mohamad Basir, said, stressed that no Macaca

fascicularis were ever officially exported from Malaysia over the years,

including the 2007 window when the ban was temporarily lifted.

 

Misliah said it would be difficult for Perhilitan to take any action on

Buav's claim as there is no way of knowing if the monkeys really did come

from Malaysia as they were similar in make-up to the longtailed macaques

found in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Indonesia.

 

" It is not a species which is endemic to Malaysia, " she said, adding that

only if the owner had documents issued by Perhilitan would they be able to

determine if the monkeys were from Malaysia, otherwise, it would be very

difficult to prove.

 

She said the only way to determine whether the macaques were from this

country was if Perhilitan requested a DNA sample of the wild macaque found

in each country and carried out a complete DNA profiling to check for

differences, even slight ones, in the genetic make-up of Malaysian macaques.

 

" We have the facilities here to conduct our own tests, providing other

countries provide us with the samples, " she said.

 

" For this case, it is not easy. At least for tigers, Malaysia has its own

sub-species, so if a person is found to have exported them without the

necessary papers, we can take action. "