Cry for caged monkeys' sake

KATHMANDU, Feb 27 - Animal right activists on Friday called for the rehabilitation of over 300 rhesus monkeys caged at the Lele-based National Biomedical Research Centre.
A group of conservationists from the Animal Welfare Network Nepal and Stop Monkey Business Coalition urged the government to formulate the Animal Welfare Act at the earliest and include a clause on animal welfare in the new constitution.

On Sunday, the Natural Resources and Means Committee of the Legislature-Parliament had directed the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) to halt the export of rhesus monkeys from the research centre to the US for bio-medical research, stating that the Wildlife Farming, Reproduction and Working Policy 2003 does not have a clear provision on the export of monkeys.

Ravi Sharma Aryal, CITES expert and the secretary at the Natural Resources and Means Committee, said the existing Wildlife Policy was the result of a ministerial-level meeting.

‘‘The policy, formulated without doing homework and holding consultations with stakeholders, is full of full of loopholes. It is not clear on whether or not to allow the export of monkeys. The policy is not in line with CITES, the convention that governs the trade or utilisation of the endangered and protected animals and plants,’’ he said.

The policy aims to facilitate breeding of various protected animals, including deer, antelope and monkeys.

‘‘Scientific monitoring tools to monitor the breeding of monkeys are also lacking. The government is introducing a Wildlife Farming Act to address the issue of export of monkeys,’’ Aryal said. Until the Act is promulgated, the parliament committee has directed the MoFSC to stop the export of monkeys.

About a month ago, the MOFSC had given the centre a go-ahead for the export of its captive monkeys after the centre’s owner Prabesh Man Shrestha requested the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) to allow the export of 25 rhesus monkeys to the US-based South West Foundation for Bio-Medical Research Centre.

Manoj Gautam, spokesperson for the Stop Monkey Business Coalition, said animal activists had hailed the decision to stop the export of monkeys.

‘‘Apart from being illegal, cruel and unnecessary the bio-medical research on monkeys will give Nepal a bad reputation,’’ argued Gautam.

Now we are concerned about the fate of over 300 caged monkeys kept in Lele and urge the government to rehabilitate them in the jungles, he said.

As a part of national and international animal activists' campaign, wildlife activists had, on Jan. 21, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking a halt in the export of monkeys to the US.

In the past, the government used to capture monkeys and sell them to the Lele-based biomedical research centre.

According to Roots and Shoots Organisation, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns for the protection of animals rights, around 20 percent of Nepal's lab monkeys are euthanised or die a natural death in a year.

Demonstrations have been held in Nepal and across the world while some 7000 individuals have signed a petition requesting the government to ban export and rehabilitate caged monkeys, the organisation stated.