Sanctuary receiving, treating smuggled monkeys says surging trade ‘breaks our hearts’
Primatologist Tamar Fredman, whose sanctuary has taken in 16 monkeys seized by police, warns that wild animals don’t make good pets, suffer emotionally, pose risks to humans
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The director of the Israel Primate Sanctuary in central Israel warned Thursday that trying to keep wild monkeys as pets caused the social animals huge suffering while posing health risks to all those who come into contact with them.
Tamar Fredman, an internationally renowned primatologist, told The Times of Israel that the sanctuary had taken in all 16 of the smuggled monkeys confiscated recently by police and transferred to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, mainly from Bedouin areas of southern Israel.
“Over recent years, due to social media, the trade in wild animals has grown, including in Israel, where we’ve mainly seen trade in parrots and reptiles coming, for example, from Jordan,” Fredman said. “Now it’s on a scale never seen here before. It breaks our hearts.”
The 16 comprise vervet, green and guenon monkeys, all captured in Africa as part of the illegal wildlife trade. They were brought to the Jordanian or Egyptian borders and, in some cases, were flown over by drone.
They were kept chained, often in tiny cages. In recent days, several have been found tied up in open spaces, perhaps as their keepers have tried to avoid being caught red-handed by police, who have also apprehended four lion cubs smuggled into the country.
Each animal will be in quarantine at the sanctuary for up to two weeks until blood tests sent overseas yield results on diseases such as tuberculosis, SIV (an HIV-like virus), types of herpes, and rabies. Fredman said several people who have handled the animals were bitten.
Some monkeys also arrived with injuries. One arrived with a large bite on the back and terrible wounds, she said. Another, kept with a tight belt around its waist, suffered sores from the belt and had tetanus. A third came with an injured tail — stressed monkeys often eat their tails, Fredman explained.
A monkey located by police in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva earlier this month died of tetanus due to the harsh conditions it was kept in.
Fredman said all the animals would have suffered severe emotional damage from being taken from their families in the wild, transported in cages or boxes, being kept alone, and taken out once in a while to be filmed for sales promotion on social media.
Five of the animals are female. One is a baby, probably aged one, while another, who arrived overnight Wednesday-Thursday, is mature and appears to have a cataract in one eye. Many of the mature males have had their teeth removed to prevent them from biting.
“The most important thing for rehabilitation is to get the monkeys integrated into groups,” Fredman said. “That’s the first thing we’ll do after quarantine. We’ve already matched the baby to two youngsters.”
