Archives

The deadly Ebola virus is keeping Nigerians away from wild animals, and that’s good news for the baboons and hyenas who are kidnapped from the jungle, beaten into submission and forced to tour the country to entertain the locals.

Photo: Pieter Hugo

In 2007, Pieter Hugo, a South Africa photographer, traveled around Nigeria twice with a group of animal handlers and their performing hyenas and baboons. He said that locals, who are not socialized to consider the welfare of the animals, “flocked to watch monkeys dance in trousers or baboons mimic farmers” and that “the spectacle of the hyenas, monkeys and snakes being paraded through the streets” actually “caused traffic jams” with “everyone staring in wonder” and “showering them with money.”

Photo: Pieter Hug

But that was before Ebola. Today, people are paying heed to the government’s warning to avoid interacting with captive animals. And that is saving some animals from a life of deprivation and torment in the streets of Nigeria.

The number of monkeys and hyenas who are kidnapped from the wild and held captive for entertainment is low, but, like the elephants in circuses and killer whales at Sea World, to each of these animals, their captivity is life itself.

Photo: Pieter Hugo

The government is also advising people to abstain from bush meat. And, while Ebola has, in fact, curbed consumption, hunters expect to return to the forests soon — when the fear of hunger trumps concern about disease.

Bushmeat for sale in Nigerian market

Primera Management, a company that cannot be traced, is attempting to build a large monkey breeding facility in Central Florida over objections of the State Senator who represents the area. Monkeys from Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa, will be transported to the facility in Hendry County, where they will be bred and sold to laboratories. Animal Defenders International released footage of monkeys in Mauritius being abused, though Primera insists that their monkeys will come from a different, unnamed source. Citing health, safety and animal care concerns, the Senator is demanding a public hearing with all stakeholders, including the Center for Disease Control.

Who is behind this primate breeding facility? Who is accountable if monkeys escape or disease is transmitted? Given the environmental and land-use issues associated with a 3,000 monkey facility, why is it being constructed without so much as a public hearing? As a starting point, please thank Florida State Senator Dwight Bullard for attempting to stop the construction of this facility until the community has answers. And stay tuned for more information as advocacy groups put together the pieces of the puzzle.

One month after a whistle blower at Princeton sent PETA an internal email describing the callous abuse of a lab monkey, the University issued a statement claiming they found “no evidence to support allegations of animal mistreatment.” The internal email, which was sent by a psychology professor to his lab workers after he learned that they rolled at least one marmoset monkey down the hall in a ferret exercise ball, stated: “The marmosets are not in the lab for your amusement. . . We are forcing them into experimental contexts that they wouldn’t otherwise choose because that is the only way that we can address our scientific questions. To force them into contexts for which there is no scientific justification is reprehensible and, frankly, unethical.”

In its statement, Princeton denied wrongdoing, stating its “investigation determined that a researcher had placed a single marmoset in a ferret exercise ball to explore use of the ball by marmosets during research projects. . . The ball was observed while on a track and on the floor, where it rolled slowly for a short distance.”

Marmoset

While Princeton won’t admit to animal cruelty in this case, it must be acknowledging prior abuse or the potential for abuse by describing steps it has taken in recent years to strengthen its animal care, including “hiring additional professional staff with expertise in laboratory animal medicine” and “creating a new Office of Research Integrity and Assurance.” Of course, no amount of reform will make it acceptable to hold animals captive in lab cages, depriving them of everything that comes naturally to them and experimenting on their bodies. Animal experimentation must and will eventually be banned with the help of organizations like Stop Animal Experimentation Now.