IFAW release: Taiping four should go home says IFAW

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

 

 

Here is our latest release on Western Lowland Gorillas. Let me know if you

have any questions.

 

 

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Kerry

 

 

 

Kerry Branon

Communications Coordinator

International Fund for Animal Welfare

75 Attucks Lane

Hyannis, MA 02601

508-744-2068

kbranon <kbranon

www.ifaw.org <http://www.ifaw.org/>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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77 Church Street, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa * International

Headquarters, 411 Main St., Yarmouth Port, MA 02675, USA

 

 

 

 

NEWS RELEASE

 

 

 

 

Contact:

 

Christina Pretorius (IFAW) - S.A. Tel: +27 (21) 424 2086 or +27 (82)

330-2558;

 

E-mail: cpretorius

 

 

 

Taiping Four Should Go Home Says IFAW

 

 

 

(Cape Town, South Africa - 20 April, 2004) - South Africa has flouted the

same international conventions it helped form by allowing the so-called

Taiping Four gorillas to be moved to a Pretoria Zoo instead of returned to

Cameroon, their country of origin.

 

 

 

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org) has called

for the South African Government to respect the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Annex One which says that: " Where the

country of origin desires the return of the animals, this desire should be

respected. "

 

 

 

" Annex 1 makes it very clear that the Taiping Four should ideally be

returned to Cameroon, from where they were originally caught and smuggled

out to the Taiping Zoo, Malaysia on fraudulent documentation, " said Jason

Bell-Leask, Director of IFAW South Africa.

 

 

 

" And, while Annex 1 is not binding, as a signatory to Cites and in the

spirit of international cooperation, South Africa should respect the

conventions it helped put in place to safeguard endangered species. Cameroon

is well within its rights to demand the return of the gorillas to that

country and there should be no hesitation on South Africa's part in making

plans to send them home immediately, " he said.

 

 

 

The Taiping Four are juvenile Western Lowland Gorillas orphaned when their

parents were killed for the bushmeat trade. The animals were smuggled into

Nigeria and then via South Africa to Malaysia on fraudulent documentation,

as a part of an " exchange programme. "

 

 

 

The four gorillas are currently in quarantine at the National Zoological

Gardens of South Africa (NZG) and will be moved to an enclosure in six weeks

time.

 

 

 

Ends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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