South Africa's role in the Taiping 4 case?

December 11, 2003

From Day 1, there have been suspicions that South Africa played a role, not

only in the transfer of the Taiping 4 gorillas (indeed, the gorillas

transitted in South Africa and flew from there to Malaysia on South African

Airways), but in the entire scenario which allowed these 4 gorilla babies to

go, unquestioned and unchallenged to Taiping.

Now South Africa is proudly proclaiming Pretoria Zoo will breed these babies

to " save the species " in a twisted re-write of history. And the same

officials who turned a blind eye to the suspicous shipment of 4 baby

gorillas now are the ones " ok'ing " their return.

Malaysia still claims everyone was duped and they were victims. No one's

been punished and the Taiping Zoo director still has his job. At least

Nigeria had inquests and fired the director of the Ibadan Zoo. Cameroon's

repeated requests for the return of these gorillas is ignored and now,

somehow, South Africa gets the benefit of this CRIME. If you find a bloody,

hacked up dead body and never find the killer, it doesn't mean a crime

hasn't been committed. But somehow people in CITES seem to be of the

opinion, since no one's been charged with anything, no crime has taken place

.... sigh.

This stinks. Hey, but new genes are added to the captive gene pool, so the

price paid for this addition seems easily justified or ignored by some.

Having seen first hand the trauma bushmeat apes endure, however, NOTHING

justifies the slaughter, use and abuse of primates in the name of

" conservation. "

Jane Dewar

Founder, Gorilla Haven

www.gorilla-haven.org

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" Centro de Primates Peñaflor " <sigloxxi

Tuesday, December 09, 2003 4:31 PM

[alloprimate] Johannesburg Star story on Taiping four gorillas

In September of this present year when we were moving Toto, the chimp,

to Zambia (chimfunshi), I went in and out Johannesburg's airport 4 times

and I can say that it is a paradise for traficants. I saw how people

were movimg crocodriles and birds. I saw hunters that had just

participated in safaris and were taking their prizes home to Saudi

Arabia. In that moment I thought that our 2 years work to rescur Toto

from a circus was meaningless when one sees the few obstacles the

southafrican authorities give people to take endangered animals in and

out of the country. I alse recalled the 3 baby chimps that the mexican

circus " Hermanos Fuentes Gasca " has with a cites given by the

southafrican government and that says that the chimps were legally

bought from a breeding place of Natal, even when the southafrican

embassy in Chile told me that they do not have such places.

Elba Muñoz

Centro de Rescate y Rehabilitación de Primates

Peñaflor, Chile

HYPERLINK " http://www.macacos.cl/ " www.macacos.cl

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December 11, 2003

For some reason, this never showed up on these news groups, so I'm

re-sending it ... Jane

-

" Jane T. R. Dewar " <jdewar

" primfocus " <primfocus; <gorillakeepers >; " Asian