Restore the ban on Monkey export

民主行动党副主席兼怡保西区国会议员古拉于2007年9月20日，在八打灵再也发表声明：

长尾猴的出口禁令解除，将导致它们被残忍地杀害成为食物，或在实验室里经历痛苦折磨。

天然资源及环境部长拿督斯里阿兹米卡立一定要澄清他本身自相矛盾的言论，“长尾猴出口禁令并未被解除，只有城市里的猴子才会被捕捉及出口。”显然地，这番言论令部长本身违反了1972年野生动物保护法令。

长尾猴被列在《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》（CITES）附录二里。而在我国1972年野生动物保护法令里，长尾猴被列为二级受保护动物（Schedule Two, Part III），

我们为部长发表的似是而非的言论深表关注。我们置疑他允许受保护动物被出口国外的真正目的。这些可怜的灵长类将被残杀烹煮，并且在实验室里面对可怕的痛苦。显然地，是部长默许这种残忍、不人道的做法。

阿兹米必须回答下列问题：

1. 谁、什么公司会在长尾猴的出口、以及它们的痛苦、妄死中坐拥最大的利益？

2. 有什么证据显示环境部有资料证明长尾猴数量过多？由林业局提供的无危害统计（NDF）已经受人置疑，因为，在统计野生动物的科学研究里，是不可能精准确切地计算野生动物的数量，科学家一般上仅以分布区来计算它们的数量。

3. 如果环境部真的要控制长尾猴的数量，它们是否有考虑使用一些人道的方法如：绝育或无痛苦的人道毁灭？

4. 要如何解释长尾猴将在出口海外时，面对残酷至极的对待？

5. 环境部要如何分辩“城市猴子”及“乡村猴子”以进行“非法”或“合法”的交易？如此模糊的分类只会导致捕捉这些灵长类以谋利的非法活动激增。

长尾猴的栖息地已经在杂乱无序的发展中受到严重破坏。人类一直认为自己是万物之灵，我们往往忘了，动物比我们更早出现在这里，他们比人类需要更多的保护。我们必须将野生动物视为大自然母亲的组成部份，它们都是上天赐予的礼物，不应遭到毁灭。

古拉

Media statement by DAP vice chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat M.Kula Segaran on Thursday, September 20, 2007 in Petaling Jaya.

Lifting the export ban of long-tailed macaques will result in their slaughter for the cooking pot or being subjected to cruel experiments in laboratories.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid must clarify his contradictory statement that“The ban on the export of the long-tailed macaque has not been lifted, only monkeys in the cities would be caught and exported.” He is clearly in breach of the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972.

Long-tailed macaques are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(Cites). It is also classified as “Protected Wild Animals” under the our Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 (Schedule Two, Part III).

We are deeply concerned about the paradoxical statement made by the Minister. We would also like to question his motives for allowing protected species to be exported overseas. These poor wildlife primates will be destined for the cooking pot and be subjected to horrendous suffering in the experiment laboratories. This is clearly a cruel and inhumane act by the Minister.

Azmi has to answer the questions:

1.Who and which company will profit financially from the export of macaques, as well as their torture and death?

2.What evidence has the Ministry gathered to prove that there is a serious overpopulation problem? Non-detrimental finding (NDF) provided by the Perhilitan are being suspected as it is almost impossible to determine in the wildlife inventory. Wildlife population estimates normally appear as range.

3.If the Ministry really wants to control the monkey population, has it taken more humane methods into consideration, such as sterilization or humane culling?

4.How does the Ministry justify the extreme cruelty that we know macaques are subjected to when they are transported overseas?

5.How will the Ministry be able to differentiate between urban and “rural” monkeys for classification of legal or illegal trade? Such untenable classification will only lead to a growth in both legal as well as illegal trade of these primates.

Macaque habitats have been progressively destroyed due to indiscriminate development. Human always think that we are greatest living beings. It appears that we have forgotten that the animals were here before us and they need more protection than humans. We must always look at the wild animals as part and parcel of the Mother Nature for they are god’s gift and should not to be destroyed.

M. Kula Segaran

Stop dog-catching competition

民主行动党中委及非政府组织局主任刘天球于2007年9月11日，在士拉央发表声明：

马上停止捉狗比赛

我们对于士拉央县议会举办的捉狗比赛表达深切关注。

在士拉央县议会的网站上刊登了关于上述比赛的一项广告，这项广告所传达的讯息极为残忍及不可理喻。

• 第一名得奖者将可获得1万5000令吉的奖金，而第二名及第三名的得奖者可分别获 1万3000令吉及1万1000令吉。
• 上述前三奖得主每名需至少捕获150只狗。
• 每个月，县议会将交发出每只狗20令吉给那些捉狗者作为津贴。

我们认同，为了要生活在一个健康及安全的环境，我们有必要控制流浪狗的数量以避免它们数量过多，然而，一项捉狗比赛不会是一个解决方案，它只会制造更多问题。我们基于下列理由，反对通过捉狗比赛来控制流浪狗的数量：

(1) 未受过训练的居民可能会伤害到自己。这些流浪狗不惯于接触人类，一旦被逼入困境，它们可能会攻击捕捉者。
(2) 丰厚的奖金将吸引一些人士，不择手段地进行捕捉行动以获奖，他们可能使用一些不人道的方法捉狗，导致狗儿受伤。.

(3) 这将间接鼓励人们捉狗甚至偷取家犬、宠物。

除此之外，难道我们的县议会就是这样花费向我们征收的门牌税及租税吗？那些可是我们的血汗钱。这笔多达5万令吉的奖金，应该被用在公众教育，以及一些更主动积极的措施如绝育、区分已阉割及未阉割狗只的执照、负责任的宠物主运动，同时，立法惩罚那些抛弃宠物的人士。

我们的县议会已经被骄纵恣肆太久了，以致他们无需为他们所浪费的一分一毫做出具公信力及透明的交待，而他们在浪费公款方面，也显得越来越有创意。

我们促请士拉内县议会马上停止捉狗比赛。

刘天球

Media statement by DAP CEC Member and NGO Bureau Chief Ronnie Liu Tian
Khiew on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 in Selayang.

DAP: Stop the Dog Catching Competition immediately!

We are deeply concerned about the Dog Catching Competition which is
organized by the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS).

The messages come out from the advertisement on the Selayang Municipal
Council's website were utterly cruel and ridiculous.

l The first-prize winner will get RM15, 000; the second-prize winnerl
will get RM13, 000 and the third -prize winner will win RM11, 000.

l The minimum number of dogs capture for the top three winners must bel
at least 150 dogs each.

l Each month, the council pays RM20 for each stray dog caught as anl
incentive to the dog-catchers.

While we agree that action to control stray dogs are necessary for reasons of safety and healthy environment and to avoid overpopulation, a dog-catching competition is hardly a solution but will only create a bigger problem. We object to the idea of controlling population of stray dogs through the dog-catching competition with lucrative prizes due to the following reasons:

(1)Residents are not trained and could hurt themselves. These stray dogs are not used to human contact and if cornered, they might attack those who try to catch them.

(2)The prizes were generous and would certainly draw desperate people who would resort to any means to catch dogs. They may harm or injure the dogs and may use inhumane methods.

(3)This will indirectly encourage people to catch dogs and perhaps even steal house pets.

On top of that, is this how our municipal councils are going to spend our hard-earned money from the increase in assessment and quit rent rates? The amount of money, which is more than RM50, 000, should be spent on public education, and more pro-active measures should be put into practice such as active sterilization programs, different licensing for neutered and unneutered dogs, responsible pet ownership programs and making abandonment an offence under municipal by-laws.

For too long our municipal councilors have not been held accountable and transparent for their spendthrift expenditure and they are getting more and more innovative in their extravagant spending.

We urge the MPS to stop the Dog Catching Competition immediately.

Ronnie Liu

New Sports Game ? DOG-catching contest !

What a maverick measure!
How can these people take dog-catching as a sports game?
This is the website of Selayang Local Council (http://www.mps.gov.my/default01.htm)

It states that the dog-catching contest is going on. The competition is open to residential associations of Selayang and a RM15,000 cash prize awaits the team that manages to catch more than 150 dogs in a span of six months. Second and third prize of this contest is RM13,000 and RM11,ooo respectively.

Monkey export ban not lifted

WHAT IS EXACTLY GOING ON?
Ban Lifted or not lifted?

KUALA LUMPUR: The ban on the export of the long-tailed macaque has not been lifted, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid clarified.

“I did not use the word 'lift'. The media quoted me wrongly,” he told a press conference during the Malaysian Energy and Climate Change Dialogue yesterday.

Instead, he said, only monkeys in the cities would be caught and exported.

On Aug 18, Azmi was quoted as saying that the Cabinet had in June agreed to lift the ban on the export of the monkeys found in urban areas, as there were numerous complaints that the monkeys had stolen food and attacked people.

“The proposal to catch and export the monkeys was only to reduce their numbers in cities because they are causing problems,” he said, adding that the monkey population in Malaysia was more than 700,000, with 250,000 in urban areas.

“We don’t allow the monkeys from the jungle to be caught and exported,” he added.

Catching those in the cities and exporting them did not mean the export ban was lifted, he explained.

“We are only controlling the numbers in the cities. People can catch them and do what they want with them. If they want to export them, we allow it,” he said.

Asked whether licences had been issued to exporters of monkeys caught in the cities, Azmi said no. He said the Government had moved the monkeys to their natural habitat but they seldom survived because the monkeys there would kill them.

Efforts to sterilise these monkeys did not work because those not sterilised bred quickly, he added. (DID they ever sterilise monkeys over the last 20 years? )

HILARY CHEW meanwhile reports that the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society’s (Roar) president N. Surendransaid the minister’s explanation was highly confusing and misleading.

Roar is the umbrella body of local animal rights groups.

“Allowing urban monkeys to be hunted almost certainly will lead to trapping of monkeys in the jungle,” he said, adding that the group doubted the Wildlife Department would have enough resources to monitor the hunting or the capability to differentiate between urban and jungle monkeys.

Roar yesterday handed a memorandum to Azmi demanding that the minister reinstate the ban.

Reimpose export ban on macaque, urges animal rights groups

By HILARY CHIEW

KUALA LUMPUR: Animal rights groups have opposed Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid’s decision to lift the 23-year-old export ban on the long-tailed macaque.

The groups come under the umbrella body, the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare

Society (Roar). President N. Surendran said lifting the ban was tantamount to condemning the monkeys to an insufferable fate.

“It is shocking that the authorities themselves are committing the offence. The minister is aware that the monkeys are used as pets and for food and medical (testing) purposes.

“In the food trade, the monkeys have their skulls pried open while alive, so diners can eat their brains,” Surendran claimed.

Under Section 92(f) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, anyone who “wilfully does or wilfully omits to do anything which in any way causes any unnecessary suffering, pain or discomfort to any wild animal or wild bird” can be fined up to RM5,000, or sentenced to up to three years in jail.

On Aug 17, Azmi announced that the ban had been lifted, and now the group is demanding that the ban be reimposed.

Surendran also questioned the minister’s claim that sterilisation efforts to control the macaque population have failed, hence justifying the trading of this protected species.

“As far as we know, there has been no serious sterilisation programme of the long-tailed macaque. Even if it was true that some displaced monkeys have attacked urbanites, exporting them is not the solution.”

Selangor Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals chairman Christine Chin called for better management of the human-animal conflict caused by man encroaching on the habitat of the macaques.

She also urged the authorities to look into creating sanctuaries for wildlife to achieve sustainable development.