Cambodian police rescue 50 monkeys from restaurant trade

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Deutsche Presse-Agentur

May 21, 2005, Saturday

05:04:12 Central European Time

 

Cambodian police rescue 50 monkeys from restaurant trade

 

Cambodian authorities have rescued and released 50 wild macaque monkeys

which had almost certainly been destined for export to the international

restaurant market, police said on Saturday.

 

Ek Phnom district police chief of the northwestern province of Battambang,

Chas Sameth, said 14 Cambodian nationals who confessed to being recruited by

a middleman to capture the primates had been arrested but released. They

were to burn them out of their forest homes and into their waiting nets.

 

" We recovered 51 monkeys, but one had already died. The 14 people we caught

were made to sign documents saying they would not reoffend and released, "

Chas Sameth said.

 

" Unfortunately, the poaching ringleaders escaped. The ones we arrested are

just poor farmers, paid as labourers by the men who take the monkeys to

sell. They are so poor, we had to feed them after we arrested them because

they were starving. "

 

He said the adult monkeys had almost certainly been destined for the

restaurants of Vietnam and possibly China before their rescue and release,

although very young monkeys of the species also make popular pets.