Applause and satisfaction from animal rights defenders, according to whom the crowned macaques were not destined for zoos but for restaurants or experimental laboratories. This characteristic primate of Sri Lanka would hardly have survived outside of its natural environment. In recent weeks, nearly thirty associations and organizations had appealed to the courts to annul the agreement.
Colombo () – The Sri Lankan authorities have reversed their decision to export 100,000 monkeys of the “crowned macaque” family to China, the Attorney General announced in a letter addressed to the Court of Appeal. The news was greeted with joy and satisfaction by environmentalists and activist groups, who had fought for the cancellation of an agreement between Colombo and Beijing for purely tourism and commercial purposes, without taking into account the needs and health of animals.
Deputy Attorney General Manohara Jayasinghe, representing the Department of Wildlife, announced that the Court of Appeals had accepted a motion to challenge the capture and export of primates to China. Sanjeeva Jayawardena, a representative of animal rights organizations, said she was pleased with the news because “monkeys were destined to end up in Chinese restaurants.” The court adjourned until July 7 the hearing in the Court of Appeals before judges Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and MAR Marikkar for the transcription and subsequent ratification of the decision.
Activist groups had demonstrated in April against the project to export monkeys to Dragon Country. According to government spokesman and transport minister Bandula Gunawardana, Colombo had received an order from a private Chinese company and appointed a committee to assess the export of 100,000 crowned macaques – found only in Sri Lanka – destined for Chinese zoos. The protest of environmentalists and animal rights activists did not wait. They consider that the primates would have ended up in laboratories to be used as guinea pigs and not in zoos. Using animals, they say, to obtain economic benefits and try to pay part of the debt of a country in deep crisis is not fair or admissible.
PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals) also intervened in the matter, expressing its gratitude to the Sri Lankan government that canceled the commercialization of the animals. “These monkeys can’t stand captivity. It is almost certain that, when they were in China, they would have been destined for biomedical experiments and would have died within a few months,” said Lisa Jones-Engel, a senior scientific advisor for PETA. The animal rights group had previously written to the authorities to ask that the sale be suspended, because they knew full well that they would end up in laboratories and subjected to experiments, torture and certain death. That is why 30 animal rights movements (including the local branch of WWF) decided to appeal to the courts and challenge the export agreement that had been signed at the time by the Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture, Mahinda Amaraweera.
