Animal lover calls for the ban of rat poison
Following a suspected poisoning of two vervet monkeys La Lucia resident, Linda McGregor, has called for the ban of rat poison or at the very least a review of legislation.
CONCERN for the safety of residents, pets and local wildlife have been raised following the suspected poisoning of a mother vervet monkey and her baby.
The shocking discovery of the monkeys’ bodies in Ridge Road earlier this month came days after La Lucia resident, Linda McGregor, found a chewed packet of rat poison (underneath a tree popular among the vervets) in her garden located along the same residential road. She suspects it had been dropped by the vervets after they ingested the poison.
A veterinarian at Glenashley Veterinary Clinic supported the poisoning suspicion, saying the description of the bodies suggest that they died from internal haemorrhaging caused by the ingestion of warfarin found in rat poison.
However, Steve Smit of Monkey Helpline said based on the position and location of their bodies, the monkeys could in all likelihood also been struck by a car.
McGregor said she had sent out a message to the community WhatsApp group with a R500 reward to determine the source of the poison but had not received any concrete information. Evidence seems to suggest that the death of the monkeys was caused by negligent behaviour rather than an act of cruelty, she said.
However, she said such negligence was unacceptable.
“What I fear most at this stage is the death of a human toddler in a similar fashion to the horrifying way the baby monkey died in extreme pain, bleeding to death internally. One of our beloved pets could also lick such a packet. I also fear even more suffering of these intelligent creatures, the monkeys,” she said.
McGregor called for the ban of rat poisons or at least a review of legislation and urged the community to take up responsibility.
What’s more, she said the deaths of the monkeys were especially upsetting to her and neighbour, Jane Avis, who host feeding stations from their properties in an effort to prevent starvation, persecution and cruelty in an urban environment.
“We do this in an attempt to prevent them raiding homes, stealing anything they perceive to be food and harassing the community, in the hopes that this will protect them from cruelty,” she said.
