Pigtail baby macaque attacked by dogs

AGAIN: Monkeys are not pets!

While most monkeys are seen as little devils and in some cases a pest by most people that live nearby them, there are still a lot of people that like to keep monkeys as pets, especially when they are very young and so cute. In most cases people having monkeys as pets are giving up their pets when they become too large and aggressive to handle, or when it becomes too expensive to upgrade or enlarge the enclosure. In some cases however people hand over a monkey when it is still young and in time to have it integrate into a group at a rescue center, the best thing to do…

In some cases people hand over a young monkey because the fun is over; malnourished monkeys are brought in so sick that they are closer to death than live, or when a monkey is so badly injured because of an “accident” that the owner has nowhere else to go…

This monkey called “Jeh” was a pet kept at a shop in a medium sized city nearby and was kept most of the day in a kind of bird-cage, however a few days ago escaped form the cage and got on to the street in front of the shop, where it was badly attacked by a few street-dogs. The injuries are severe, bite-wounds all over her body with a multiple fractured arm and muscle almost completely torn. We suspect damage to the nerves at this moment with a big chance she will never be able to use her hand and arm again. In the worst case scenario it might even lose her control of her other arm which would mean she could not live on. This “accident” is again an example that wild animals are unpredictable and that the care for such animals is one with much responsibility and knowledge, for that reason we still advise strongly against people holding any kind of primate or other wild animals as pets* (more at end of page)

WFFT Medical team needs sponsorship

We are currently doing everything we can to get her back to health and ease the pain, a tough job for our “WFFT medical team” that is still working without any sponsorship or donation from any other organization over 3 years. Please let us know if you can help with fundraising, want to donate or have an idea where we can go for help!

Little “jeh” seems to enjoy the food hand-out on the day after the big surgery, her spirit high. We sincerely hope we can still give her a second chance in life.

* All over Thailand people registered totally 1,150,000 wild animals in 2003 during a National Amnesty, and nothing was done since then to set up rules or monitor the situation. We currently estimate that still over 1,300,000 wild animals are being kept nationwide, most of them in rather substandard to straight out horrible conditions.