EDITOR – The quotes from Carol Booth in your article on the monkey with concussion were ludicrously one-sided and anthropomorphic, consistently demeaning to the person who called the Monkey Helpline (instead of thanking her). She uses ‘allegedly’ in a pejorative manner, sneeringly puts the monkey’s ‘attack’ in inverted commas, refers to the monkey, a wild animal, as ‘the boy’ and names it.
Only humans can do wrong it seems, never monkeys. Writing as one who is constantly raided, whose dogs have been traumatised and whose 90-year-old mother lives under closed-window siege, I can say this is a crock. I don’t blame the domestic worker at all for using a broom to defend herself from a wild vervet invading her domain. More strength to her arm, I say. Vervets are known to be aggressive to lone females and if they feel trapped.
On what basis does Carol Booth infer that ‘the boy’ didn’t actually attack or realistically threaten the domestic worker? I think she should be commended for her bravery. Instead, she is reported to the SPCA.
Fortunately, no sane prosecutor will ever proceed on the facts set out in the article. Despite being promoted to ‘boy’ and given a name, I’ll bet that Flodden the monkey won’t be reliable in the witness box. Ironically, the lesson I took from the article was never to call the helpline if I find myself anywhere near an injured monkey, whatever the cause, but rather to finish the job and bury the evidence.
Incidentally, I don’t buy the ‘they were here first’ argument. Anyone who has spent time in wild Africa will know that vervets are relatively rare, sticking mostly to riverine or coastal bush where food is plentiful and predators aren’t. After arriving in our newish suburb 30 years ago, we saw no monkeys for over 10 years, but after the trees grew they arrived.
In the absence of predators and as food became more easily available (particularly from cretinous monkey feeders) the troop has grown, and so has the conflict. Like rats and feral cats, vervets thrive and multiply in urban environments to the great detriment of other, less aggressive, indigenous species, especially birds. I don’t know what the solution is, but neither does the Monkey Helpline.
F Dawson
Westville
