Hundreds of Monkeys Confiscated in Malaysia
September 2007
On 10 July 2007 Malaysian newspapers reported that around 950 monkeys had been seized from a wildlife smuggling syndicate on 7 July 2007. The monkeys were reportedly caught in the forests of Pahang and Johor in the south of mainland Malaysia. Their destination was suspected to be either China or the Netherlands.
The monkeys were found in a store on a plantation in Pontian. Malaysian wildlife investigators had been keeping the facility under observation for two weeks before acting. The Malaysian newspaper The Star reported that:
The long-tailed macaques [also known as crab-eating macaques] were found in a pitiful condition in filthy cages and blue gunny sacks. Around 100 dead monkeys were piled up nearby.
The survivors were taken to the Kluang Wildlife Department office in Johor. Three of the men involved in the case were Malaysian nationals, and they were all charged with unlawful possession of wildlife and cruelty to animals. A fourth man, an Indonesian national, was handed over to immigration authorities.
Malaysian wildlife department assistant director Celescoriano Razond, the leader of the team that investigated the case and seized the monkeys, told The Star that he believed one of the Malaysians arrested was a leader of the animal dealing syndicate and that this was the largest seizure of monkeys ever in Malaysia.
Mr. Razond said the starving animals had started eating their newborns and injuring one another in fights. “This is highly unusual behavior among monkeys,” he noted, “because they are [normally] very protective of each other.” He added that the monkeys would be released in stages into protected forest reserves nationwide to ensure they were not recaptured by poachers.
An IPPL colleague received further information on 19 July 2007. He received from Dutch wildlife authorities a copy of an e-mail sent by Haidar Khan of the Malaysian Law Enforcement Division. Mr. Khan sent his message to a senior official of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Management Authority in the Netherlands about the monkeys. Mr. Khan stated, in part,
The Department would clarify on the number of primates confiscated. It was reported to be 1,000 heads in your email and the exact number was 788. The confiscated species were identified as Macaca fascicularis [crab-eating macaques]. The macaques were captured illegally from the wild and confiscation was done on the basis of contravention of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 [Act 76].
Currently Malaysia does not issue any export permit for macaques and there was no issuance of any CITES export permit for the macaques mentioned in the confiscation. Based on initial investigation, no destination of the intended shipment in the Netherlands has been specified. Officials of the Department were being told that there was a request of 3,000 heads of macaques from the Netherlands. However, official documentations are yet to be found.
After viewing the story about the plight of the monkeys on Malaysian TV’s Channel 2, veterinarian Dr. Roy Sirimanne of the Malaysian organization Wildlife Solutions expressed his outrage to members of the Zoo Biology mailing list, commenting,
The TV2 news tonight showed more than 1,000 monkeys trapped somewhere in Johor, south of the Malaysian peninsula, for illegal shipment allegedly to Europe. More than 100 animals had died due to suffocation. Due to sheer hunger many infants were found half-eaten. ForMalaysia in 2007 as we celebrate 50 years of our independence what happened is simply unacceptable. This day marks the beginning of the end for our monkeys in Malaysia.
