Another day, another baby, this time confiscated with assistance from the local authorities. The third Mangabey we have brought to CERCOPAN since December, but this time a female and a very demanding one at that! One of our keepers Austin was visiting Marion market on his day off and saw the baby for sale in a dirty cage surrounded by people and chickens. As soon as he informed Jerry and Uche about the baby’s location they decided that trying to reason with a trader in a crowded venue would be futile and that the only way to take this animal would be to do so by force. They also reasoned that being accompanied by the authorities had the added advantage that it would allow us to make a public example of the trader, therefore discouraging others market vendors to sell monkeys in the future.
The confiscation, despite considerable protest from the owners was over very quickly and the baby was brought back to CERCOPAN HQ. She seems very happy in her new home, but is proving to be an absolute handful; pulling hair, prising open and attempting to lick people’s eyelids, screaming as loudly as possible whenever she is put back into her enclosure and literally destroying anything accidentally left within her reach. As one of her primary carers at the moment, I will be very relieved when we integrate her into a group with Abonema and Murphy!
The arrival of yet another new monkey leaves us with a serious problem. Quarantine is almost full, our enclosures are at maximum capacity and if monkeys continue to arrive at the same rate as in recent weeks, we will very soon have nowhere to put them. Turning animals away would be seriously detrimental, not only to the monkeys themselves, but also to our education programme. Indeed, it would create additional problems informing people that they should not keep monkeys and that doing so is illegal if we are then unable to give any option of a safe place to hand in the primates they may already own. It therefore seems that our best option may be to extend our current animal accommodation and begin building new enclosures. Given the financial and space implications of such a project however, this is an avenue that will require considerable thought and planning before making the decision to go ahead.
7 Comments posted on "No room at the Inn!"
Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL on February 26th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Claire, how much do you figure it would cost to expand? I assume this means both quarantine and regular enclosures. Please email me @ siskind8@msn.com
cathy-california on February 27th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Claire, what kind of expansion are you considering and what will it cost?
sheryl, washington dc on February 27th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Poor baby girl; I’m sure she’s traumaized by her capture and whatever horrible thing happened to her mother. I’m glad you got the police involved and I hope the action set an example for others to follow. Nice work. s.
F. J. Pechir on February 27th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Good work!
Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL on February 27th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Cathy, here is the breakdown of costs: 4 enclosures $2000 each, renting land for 2 years $1800, and perimeter fence $860. These are the building costs of the enclosures and the fence.
cathy-california on February 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Thanks a lot Theresa. I imagine that Claire emailed you these #s. Claire, have any donations come in for this or is it still $4700? Are you setting up a separate collection on paypal? Hi Cathy, Thanks again for all of your input and support. Claire P.S I posted a reply yesterday to your queries about evaluating the success of the education programme. Just let me know if you have any further questions.
cathy-california on February 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Hi Claire. Thanks so much for your reply to my question about measures used to assess education. Thanks for spending so much time to send back such a thorough answer–the numbers are so encouraging. I have just sent some money but hope to work on this in the weeks ahead and see if I can get some others on board. Hi Cathy, Post a comment
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