(MY) Outcry, so young chimps will get a bigger cage

[Guest guest]

The Straits Times - Singapore

Outcry, so young chimps will get a bigger cage

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/sin28_1119.html

 

Photo:

Unlike the open closure of the other chimps, Gombe (above), Poko and

Rhamba are caged up so keepers can produce them for photo

sessions. -- ALAN LIM

 

Because of the outcry by animal-rights groups, Poko, Rhamba and Gombe --

the three young chimpanzees trained to pose with visitors daily -- will be

getting a bigger cage.

 

Mr Harrison said that although the cage in which they live is by no means

" " squalid and small'' -- it measures 2 m by 2 m by 3 m -- the zoo will be

building a bigger one.

 

" " To be honest, it is in relation to what has been going on,'' he said.

 

The three chimpanzees, raised by their keepers from young, have been

kept apart from the rest of the chimpanzees which live in an open enclosure.

 

They have been kept confined so that it is easier for the keepers to produce

them for photography sessions.

 

When the issue of the zoo's practice of using apes for photography was

raised briefly at the annual World Zoo Organisation conference last month,

Mr Harrison had said that he would review the zoo's policy and the way it

keeps its animals.