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.
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