Monkey Helpline condemns air gun violence

“DESPICABLE” was how Monkey Helpline co-founder, Carol Booth, described the brutal air gun-shooting of an eight-month-old female Vervet Monkey in the grounds of a block of flats in Currie Road, Morningside last week.

Carol said she received a call from a resident of the flats saying that a small monkey was lying bleeding on the driveway.

“Initially we suspected that the baby might have been struck by a car as the monkeys crossed Currie Road and that the mother monkey had dragged her helpless child into the grounds of the flats. But when we lifted the baby and saw the wound she was bleeding from and the condition of her left eye, we immediately suspected that she was the victim of air gun violence,” she said.

The little monkey was rushed to Riverside Vet clinic in Durban North where an X-ray confirmed Booth’s worst fears. A pellet had entered through the the monkey’s left eye, passed through her head and lodged in her neck vertebrae, causing full body paralysis. A second pellet, most likely the first to hit the small monkey, was lodged in her left hip. The severity of the injury to her head and neck resulted in the death of the monkey shortly after arrival at the clinic.

Booth confirmed that Monkey Helpline has over the past few years responded regularly to rescue call-outs from the adjacent area of Morningside for injured or dead monkeys who, on being presented at the vet clinic, were found to have been shot with lead or steel air gun pellets.

“The scourge of air gun violence against animals by criminals who flout the law as they cruelly and callously shoot monkeys, birds, cats and dogs, is not being taken seriously by the law enforcement agencies, both nationally and locally. As long as our attempts to have these criminals prosecuted are being thwarted by police indifference and ignorance of the law, and until witnesses to the shootings are willing and able to successfully lay charges against shooters at SAPS or Metro Police stations, we are on a hiding to nothing in our efforts to protect these animals. Even our emails to the relevant ministers in government, calling for urgent steps to control the unconditional private ownership or air guns in South Africa, have to date been ignored,” said Booth.

ALSO READ: Tragic end for monkey doused in paint

She said the public should be aware that the Firearms Control Act places the same restrictions on the discharging of air guns as it does on firearms and antique firearms.

“In other words, anyone discharging an air gun, with or without a pellet loaded, in a public place or a built up area without good cause to do so, is guilty of committing an offence. And, shooting at a monkey or another animal would rarely be considered ‘good cause’ in most situations!” she said.

Booth appeals to anyone who knows who shot the baby monkey, or even has a suspicion who the shooter might be, to contact Monkey Helpline as soon as possible with this information.

Contact Carol or Steve Smit on 082 411 5444 or 082 659 4711 respectively, or email: steve@monkeyhelpline.co.za.

Do you want to receive news alerts via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail WhatsApp number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts