PASA press release re Taiping Four

[Guest guest]

PASA

Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance

P.O. Box 86185

Portland, Oregon 97286

USA

www.panafricanprimates.org

 

_______________________

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

July 10, 2003

 

AFRICAN SANCTUARIES PROTEST DECISION TO SEND CONFISCATED TAIPING GORILLAS TO

PRETORIA ZOO

 

PORTLAND, Oregon -- The Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance (PASA) today called

on international wildlife officials to re-consider the recent decision to

allocate four confiscated gorillas from Malaysia to the National Zoo in

Pretoria,

South Africa, arguing that it does nothing to discourage the illegal trade in

endangered great apes.

 

PASA instead proposes that the gorillas be placed in a sanctuary near their

range lands in central Africa, where they might one day be released back into

the wild.

 

" This is an opportunity to send a clear message to poachers, traders,

dealers, zoos, and all those involved in the black-market animal trade:

Traffic in

endangered animals and nobody profits, " said Doug Cress, secretariat of PASA,

the consortium of 20 primate sanctuaries in Africa. " Instead, the Pretoria Zoo

will now receive the gorillas, even though South Africa itself -- perhaps

unwittingly -- was a party to this smuggling operation. Where is the

punishment in

that? "

 

According to the results of an investigation conducted by the International

Primate Protection League (IPPL), the four infant gorillas -- who were

believed

to have been captured in Cameroon -- were smuggled in late 2002 through

Nigeria and South Africa with forged permits to the Taiping Zoo in

Malaysia, where

the gorillas have been held since they were confiscated.

 

The government of South Africa issued transit permits for the gorillas, which

were transported on South African Airways from Nigeria.

 

On July 9, Malyasian wildlife authorities, after consulting with the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), announced

a decision

to award the gorillas to the National Zoo in Pretoria. The gorillas carry a

reported value of $1.6 million, and will be used to re-start the zoo's

languishing gorilla program.

 

The gorillas' future was the subject of an intense international debate,

pitting zoos, animal relief and welfare organizations, and international

agencies

against one another.

 

PASA, which proposed the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon as a final

destination for the gorillas, was supported by Dr. Jane Goodall, IPPL, the

governments of Cameroon and Nigeria, and a host of international animal

welfare

agencies. Limbe is a not-for-profit charity jointly operated by the Pandrillus

Foundation and the government of Cameroon.

 

Limbe already cares for 10 gorillas -- including two that were confiscated

recently after being held illegally in Nigeria -- and will soon embark upon a

gradual release program. Gorilla re-introductions are extremely slow and

difficult procedures, but PASA sanctuaries have recently joined with the World

Conservation Union (IUCN) to initiate such programs to counter threats of

over-crowding.

 

" At Limbe, the gorillas could one day be released back into the wild, back

into the range country where they belong, " Cress said. " But at the Pretoria

Zoo,

not only are they destined to remain in captivity forever, they are also

thousands of kilometers from their homelands.

 

" If CITES and other international wildlife agencies are ever going to crack

down on the poaching and black-market trading of endangered species, then they

must start now -- by removing the profit motive altogether. "

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Doug Cress

Secretariat

PASA

1-503-222-5755

www.panafricanprimates.org