Editor
IN response to Carol Pearce letter, ‘Monkeys are here to stay’. I would just like to make a comment that yes, I agree we are taking over their habitat and the lack of food is encouraging them to come into our houses. I too close all my doors and windows to ensure I don’t have any fruit or food taken, but we have a serious issue with monkeys biting children, parents and teachers at the local school.
My six-year-old daughter was playing around the school pool when a monkey grabbed her on her shoulder and bit her. This even for an adult is a traumatic experience. I have been told by many people, including ‘The Monkey Man’, that the monkeys will not attack anyone unless provoked or if they are carrying food. In this particular situation my child had no food on her nor was she provoking it. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even see the money sitting on the back of the school swimming pool stands.
I have also witnessed a monkey biting one of the mothers while working on her laptop at the pool, where the monkey came up to her and bit her on her back. Another incident where a domestic worker, who had brought the child for swimming lessons, was sitting in the shade looking at her cellphone and a monkey came up to her and bit her on her leg. I too have been chased back into my car, carrying no food or provoking them.
I have a major issue with this, where monkeys are attacking people for no reason. Something needs to be done about this situation. What needs to be done I’m not sure, as I am not a monkey specialist, but my children are petrified to go into school in fear of being bitten, or even go into their own gardens because they are scared when the monkeys are around. We have the same troop of monkeys that come through our property on a daily basis, to the degree that my children have now given them names as we are that familiar with them.
It’s not so much the ransacking of kitchen or taking of food that is bothering me, but the attack on children and people for no reason that is beginning to worry me.
Candice King
Durban North
