Gentle Colobus Monkeys Smuggled: Please Protest

June 2000

Dear Primate Friend,

I am writing to tell you about a tragedy involving nine beautiful colobus monkeys caught in the forested highlands around Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and shipped to the hot wet nation of Thailand, where they met a terrible fate.

We hope that, after reading this story, you will sign and mail the enclosed postcards and/or write letters asking the government of Tanzania to 1) investigate the legaity of the shipment,
2) prosecute any responsible parties if any illegalities are uncovered, and
3) ban all monkey exports, including export of colobus monkeys. We also hope you'll also protest strongly to Thai authorities.

Meet the Colobus monkey!

Colobus monkeys are among the most spectacular of all monkeys, with their beautiful black and white coats, appealing faces, and long tails. In the past these monkeys were slaughtered for their lovely furry coats. Colobus belong to the leaf monkey family. All leaf monkeys have great difficulty adjusting to life in cages because of their very special diets and digestive systems.

Colobus monkeys live happily in troops. Amazingly, they never fight. The beautiful snow white babies are passed around the entire family. Colobus monkeys can leap huge distances from tree to tree. Seeing troops of colobus monkeys hurtling through the trees is a highlight of any tourist's visit to East Africa. I was lucky enough to see wild colobus monkeys in Kenya this April.

Having seen colobus monkeys living joyously in nature makes it especially heart-breaking for me to tell you this sad story of what happened to a shipment of colobus monkeys exported from Tanzania this May. The reason I am telling you this tale is that we must stop it getting repeated.

The beginning of the story - Tanzanian dealer collects colobus monkeys

In May 2000 a Tanzanian animal dealer, whose name is not yet known to IPPL, had a group of colobus monkeys assembled ready for export. We do know that some of the monkeys were very young. We don't know yet how many colobus monkeys died in capture or before the animals left Africa for Asia. We don't know yet what airline carried the doomed monkeys. We have just learned that the monkeys left Tanzania without export permits.

The animals were jammed into shipping crates and flown to Thailand. These monkeys, used to living at high altitudes where the weather is cool, were sent to the city of Bangkok, which is at sea level and where the weather is always hot and humid and the air is always foul due to pollution.

Thai dealer imports the monkeys - Meet "Lek"

We know the name of the Thai animal dealer who imported the monkeys. His name is Chatchai Boonbamrer and he has the nickname "Lek." The company he runs is called "Friendship Farm," but "Lek" is no friend to the animals he imports to Thailand.

On arrival in Thailand, the monkeys started dying. An official of "Friendship Farm" told the press he had packed the bodies of the dead monkeys in a bag and "left them at a public garbage bin."

First news of the shipment

IPPL first heard of the ill-fated shipment through a 24 May article in the Nation, a Bangkok newspaper. The article claimed that the Bangkok Zoo had bought a group of seven colobus monkeys from an animal dealer and that three were already dead.

Hysterical public reaction to phony AIDS claims

Amazingly, the newspaper claimed that the monkeys might have died of AIDS. No monkey has ever given AIDS to a human being and colobus monkeys don't even get AIDS. But the story started a wave of national hysteria in Thailand.

The Nation quoted a "wildlife expert who asked not to be named" as saying that the dreaded disease could "spread throughout the country" because of the colobus monkeys. A virologist contacted by IPPL said this "expert's" comment was total nonsense. The "wildlife expert" was not an "expert" at all!

The tragic truth is that AIDS is very prevalent in Thailand but is spread by humans - not by monkeys.

As a result of the publicity people stayed away from the Bangkok Zoo in droves, terrified of getting AIDS from colobus monkeys. One sensible caregiver at the zoo tried to calm the hysteria. Prayot Krasaeyot told the press that he had been caring for the zoo's monkeys for 20 years and that:

I've never been worried about monkeys having HIV. I'm doing my job as usual. I feed the monkeys and clean their cages every day. A veterinarian has already confirmed that the three dead colobus died of pneumonia, not AIDS.

Surviving monkeys taken away to be killed

But the hysteria grew. IPPL sent letters to the Thai press which were published. But it didn't help.

On 6 June the four surviving colobus monkeys were seized from the Bangkok zoo by officials of the Thai Royal Forestry Department. The zoo was unable to produce any quarantine certificates or import documents for the animals.

On 7 June the Nation told its readers:

The zoo's four remaining colobus monkeys have been taken from the zoo and will be put down, the Royal Forestry Department announced yesterday. Forestry Department Plodprasop Suraswadi said the step was necessary to prevent humans getting AIDS.

Mr. Plodprasop stated that he had never set out to kill animals, but that, "human safety is the first priority whenever I have to make a decision." Director Plodprasop said that the monkeys had probably been smuggled into Thailand.

Bangkok Zoo's lack of ethics

The Director of the Organization of Thai zoos told the Bangkok Post that he bought the colobus monkeys "out of compassion and did not bother to check whether they were legally obtained." He said that the zoo "needed rare species in order to attract visitors."

Local animal activist Soraida Walwala disagreed, saying that buying smuggled animals "would promote other illegal wildlife trading."

IPPL agrees with Soraida Walwala. We are appalled that zoos would use the services of dubious international animal dealers who greedily rape the world's wildlife to line their pockets. These dealers don't care if the animals they ship belong to fragile species as long as they make their dirty money.

Colobus monkeys and other leaf monkeys have long been well known for their fragility and this is well known in zoo circles. In the late 1970s Toronto Zoo in Canada purchased two colobus shipments from an international animal dealer. The first shipment consisted of ten monkeys. All these monkeys died. The zoo, undeterred, ordered more. The second shipment consisted of twelve monkeys. All these monkeys were dead within two weeks.

IPPL Acts to save the surviving colobus monkeys

IPPL sent an urgent request to the Thai government not to kill the surviving monkeys. We do not know their fate - but we hope they were not killed.

IPPL Investigates

IPPL also began an investigation into the shipment. We began to get e-mail messages from someone apparently well-informed about the events, and have provided information to law enforcement authorities of several countries and to Interpol's Wildlife Crime Group and the CITES Secretariat.

IPPL members are planning to visit Tanzanian embassies around the world to request an investigation of the circumstances of the shipment.

IPPL has learned that the monkey shipment did not have the proper paperwork to be moved internationally. Colobus monkeys are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, of which both Thailand and Tanzania are members. They cannot leave Tanzania without export permits and Thailand is required to check the paperwork before clearing the shipment. The Government of Tanzania has just alleged that the monkeys were smuggled.

Why it's so important that you help

It requires a special effort to get law enforcement officials and the public interested in what happens to monkeys. If nine chimpanzees or gorillas had died in similar circumstances, there would have been a huge public outcry.

This is why IPPL plays such an important role - we take on cases like this that don't make the headlines. We rely on our "little army" of letter-writers to help us get justice for the primates - and punishment for those who treat them cruelly.

Please, please do mail your postcards and letters as soon as you can. If you have time to send a personal letter, overseas air mail from the US costs 60 cents per half ounce, $1 per ounce.

IPPL has already spent considerable time, effort and funds on this case. Any help you can provide with the costs of this campaign would be greatly appreciated. We must prevent similar tragedies from happening in future. Colobus monkeys (and all other monkeys) belong in their homelands.

Thank you in advance for help with this case.

Yours sincerely,

Shirley McGreal (Dr.), Chairwoman, IPPL

PS, Let's not forget these pathetic victims of the international monkey slave trade. If we act, maybe other monkeys will be spared a similar fate. The colobus monkeys will not have died in vain.

HOW TO HELP

IPPL has a supply of pre-printed postcards. If you would like a supply, please send an e-mail to info@ippl.org with your street address.

Here are the addresses for letters. Overseas air mail from the US costs 60 cents per half ounce, $1 per ounce.

(See sample postcard text below.)

1)	H. E. President Benjamin William Mkapa State House, Magogoni Road POB 9120 Dar es Salaam United Republic of Tanzania
2)	The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism NBC House, Samora Avenue POB 9352 Dar es Salaam United Republic of Tanzania
3)	H. E. Mr. Prapat Pothasuthon Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry of Agriculture Rajdamnoen Nok Avenue Bangkok 10200, Thailand

Sample letters or cards:

1) Dear President Mkapa,

I wish to express my concern at the deaths of several colobus monkeys exported from your country to Thailand. These monkeys were taken from their forest homes and shipped to a hot and humid country where several died. Colobus monkeys are harmless and beautiful animals. They do not deserve to suffer and die miserably overseas.

Should these monkeys have been smuggled out of your country, please take strict action against those responsible and ban them from animal dealing. If any foreigners were involved, please deport them if they are residents or have your nation's immigration authorities blacklist them if they are non-residents.

Please protect colobus monkeys forever from animal dealers.

Signed:________________________________________

2) Dear Minister Meghji,

I wish to express my concern at the deaths of several colobus monkeys exported from your country to Thailand. These animals were captured from their forest homes and shipped to the hot and humid city of Bangkok. Colobus monkeys are beautiful animals and do not deserve to be sent to die horrible deaths overseas.

Should these monkeys have been smuggled out of Tanzania, please take firm action against those responsible for this crime and ban them from animal dealing. If any foreigners were involved, please deport them if they are residents or have your nation's immigration authorities blacklist them if they are non-residents.

Please protect colobus monkeys from animal dealers.

Signed:________________________________________

3) Dear Mr. Minister,

I was very saddened to hear of the deaths of several colobus monkeys imported to Thailand from Tanzania by a company called VP Friendship, which is operated by Mr. Chatchai Boonbamrer.

These animals should have been allowed to live out their lives in their African homeland. Tanzanian authorities claim the animals did not have export permits. Why were they not confiscated? Please investigate this tragedy. If these animals were smuggled into Thailand without proper Tanzanian CITES export documents, please take strict action against any Thai nationals involved. Further, please request the Thai CITES authorities to improve their supervision of arriving wildlife shipments and inspection of the compounds of animal dealers.

Thank you.

Signed:________________________________________