Before the beginning of FIFA World Cup, GAP Project alerted about a serious problem that has been happening in Monkey Town, a private zoo at Cape Town, South Africa: the abuse and mistreating of animals, against them great primates, as chimpanzees. You can read the first denounces here and now, after the world championship has ended, we reinforce the alert with the report of a man who was volunteer of the park and witnessed the abuse committed against the chimpanzees and other animals, hoping that South-African authorities do what must be done to put an end in this explicit crime.            

Report by Stuart Beaman – Personal Account of Voluntary Work at Monkey Town

I have been working with primates for over 10 years. I went to monkey town as I believed it was a place I could put my experience to good use.

Mostly behind the scenes, where public do not have access, I soon discovered animals living in poor conditions with no clean water available to drink, no adequate shelter and areas where monkeys were living in filthy surroundings. Despite these obvious poor conditions, over time more disturbing incidents of animal cruelty and neglect were witnessed.

One of the most alarming aspects of all that I witnessed during my time at monkey town concerned the chimps. They would spend long periods of time rocking backwards and forwards, a typical behaviour problem related to stress and boredom. One chimp, Tammy, would spend long periods banging her back into a brick wall showing little interaction with her surroundings. I soon discovered why this behaviour was so severe. The chimps would be regularly chased and harassed with loud machines. It seemed that the owner of the zoo believed this was the easiest way to control the chimps and move them indoors when needed.

The chimps would be continually chased for anything up to periods of 45 minutes. I often witnessed the chimps screaming in fright as the machines came and one incident where one chimp fell badly in her haste to get away. After being chased with machines the chimps abnormal behaviour would be instantly worsened, their rocking more violent. They would refuse to eat and would sometimes pull their hair out due to the stress it caused them. Despite the effects it was having on the chimps they would continue to be harassed with the machines. When I protested to management about this cruel and needless method I was told it had to be done and was the easiest way to move the chimps. Chimps are highly intelligent animals and can easily be worked without such harsh methods. It seems to me from my experience at monkey town that the whole attitude towards the chimps by management is that they need to be controlled and punished. In reality it is patience, stability and care the chimps need. (…)

Many further examples of animal suffering were witnessed during my time volunteering at monkey town such as foxes becoming crippled and deformed due to lack of proper care, their babies dying yet still being used for breeding. Also baboons allowed to continue breeding despite the babies dying a slow death time and time again. To save money management often refused to buy bedding for the animals so the chimps and many other primates were forced to sleep on a hard concrete floor. Many animals were left in cages despite fighting with others and receiving injuries. Animals were constantly escaping from cages, often becoming injured, killed or simply never seen again. Animal deaths were often not recorded and their dead bodies would be buried on site. (…)

Monkey town is situated in nice surroundings, is very pleasing to the eye and some primates are kept in large enclosures. This and the fact that many of the problems are concealed or not obvious to people visiting seem to mask serious animal welfare issues there. The image portrayed by management as a place that rescues primates is false but also helps to conceal the real nature of this business. It seems to me that the reason for the existence of monkey town is to breed animals and make profit and it serves no real conservational or educational purpose.

What the Authorities Did: For a period of approximately a year I sent detailed reports of all incidents of cruelty and neglect I witnessed at monkey town to authorities.

During this time little changed and many of the problems went unaddressed. Authorities would make inspections after I reported incidents but these inspections never included all areas of the zoo. They would issue warnings to management on problems that needed rectifying to prevent animal suffering but these warnings would often not be followed up on and the problem would remain the same and animals would continue to suffer.

Despite reports given to authorities showing the chimps being harassed and chased with loud machines no action was taken regarding this act of cruelty and they remain under the care of the people responsible. Laws in South Africa under the Animal Protection Act state that it is an offense for any person to goad or terrify any animal. Chasing chimps with machines contravenes this law yet no action is taken when this regulation has been broken. (…)

Until I began to report incidents at monkey town I only ever witnessed one routine inspection carried out by authorities. This inspection did not involve checking all areas of the park or all animals. The very fact that the park had such poor conditions demonstrates any inspections that are being carried out are inadequate and need to be improved.

Authorities have also been informed of inadequate records being kept on the animals at monkey town. With no accurate records kept on the number of animals at monkey town, many animals could be dying every year and this would go undetected.

Authorities continue to allow monkey town to operate in the way it does and with its history of neglect and cruelty, issuing permits to allow even more animals to be bought into the same situation most recently a pair of ring tailed lemurs.

Authorities also issue permits to allow monkeys to be sold with no conditions attached to the permit such as the age at which a primate has to be before it is sold. If authorities made it standard regulation that at any given primate had to be a certain age before it could be sold this would go towards helping to cease the common but cruel practice of forcefully removing baby monkeys from their mothers for selling.

When questioning authorities about what action would be taken to safeguard against further incidents of animal suffering at monkey town I was told authorities need to build up a substantial amount of evidence to take the matter further first, however when this had been accumulated I was told past evidence gathered was now old and could not be used.

One of the improvements that has been publicised at monkey town is the extension of the chimps enclosure to give them more space. However their enclosure was extended into the baboon cage, and for this to happen and because problems existed due to the number of baboons kept, 3 healthy baboons were destroyed.

No breeding control meant the baboon troop was allowed to reach a point where it contained 2 adult males that would repeatedly fight. Both of these were amongst those destroyed. Authorities need to take more responsibility on what animals are being bred in these places and for what reasons to prevent this type of situation reaching a point where healthy animals have to be destroyed.

These latest incidents occurring after exposure and inspections by authorities seem to show that the underlying care for the animals of monkey town is not in place and authorities allow it to continue. Authorities continue to publicise that improvements have been made at monkey town yet these are the same authorities that took no real action despite receiving reports for almost a year and were not aware of many problems until they were pointed out by the reports.