Independence Day: Monkeys gain back their Freedom
On Augustus 31, while Malaysia was celebrating its 50th Independence day, 500 monkeys were freed from a monkey farm in Pontian. These monkeys remained after authorities had confiscated 1000 monkeys on the same location on 07 July 2007. All the monkeys were trapped on site by the Vietnamese and local workers of the farm and kept under extreme cruel conditions. Three monkeys were found dead by Animal Freedom Asia (AFA) inside their cage, stepped upon by other monkeys. Starving baby monkeys were clinging to each other, trying to find some comfort.
These monkeys remained after the confiscation because the owner of the farm had a license to keep and export 400 monkeys at that time. Since the ban on
export of long tailed macaques has been lifted after 23 years, dodgy animal traders take their chance.
After the confiscation, the animal trader and owner of the farm still continued trapping wild monkeys in the area. Although the owner has a license for 400 monkeys, 500 monkeys were already kept inside the cruel cages. Questions to the authorities on the fate of these monkeys by concerned citizens remained unanswered.
Therefore AFA undertook action and liberated all the remaining primates yesterday from the farm in Pontian which should get its doors shut down based on sincere animal cruelty.
Also traps to capture monkeys were destroyed.