Monkey rescuers delayed by red tape
The UIC is an industrial complex which produces chemicals and safety is an important issue.
Amanzimtoti SPCA sped to the rescue to help Monkey Helpline attend to an injured monkey after it was barred from entering the Umbogintwini Industrial Complex for safety reasons on Monday, 5 October.
“We received a call from a business in the complex about a monkey that had binding tape around its body,” said Monkey Helpline’s Steve Smit.
“We didn’t know you needed certain documents for access into the complex and in our hurry to get to the monkey, we changed vehicles and dashed off, leaving our driver’s licenses in the other car.”
When he and collegue Carol Booth arrived at the complex’s security gate, guards rightly would not allow them to enter.
“You have to show your driver’s license before you can drive into the park and we didn’t even have that,” said Steve.
“It was frustrating not being able to get in and find the monkey and we had no idea of the extent of his injury.
We spend almost an hour at the gate, before we called Amanzimtoti SPCA for assistance. Manager, Tracey Girling immediately understood the urgency of our situation and in no time at all senior inspector, Dawn du Plooy arrived to assist us in getting access by driving us around the complex to look for the monkey.”
Once inside they finally located the monkey and with lots of patience, apples, bread and nuts, eventually coaxed him into a trap and removed the tape so he could run and join the rest of her troop.
“Thanks to Amanzimtoti SPCA, Tracy and Dawn for always going the extra mile and for never letting us down when we have needed their assistance to help an animal in distress,” said Steve.
“Thanks also to George who called us to help this baby – this little one got a second chance.
We have requested a permit to make access into the complex a much easier process in future. We don’t blame the security guards for what happened, as they were only following their orders,” said Steve.
“The Umbogintwini Industrial Complex (UIC) apologises for the delay at the entry point,” said chairman, Reg Bhikum.
“The UIC is an industrial complex which produces chemicals and safety is an important issue, therefore positive identification, for example an identity document, is a requirement for access onto site.
It is useful for prior arrangements to be made with security and the situation was compounded by the driver not being in possession of a driver’s licence.
The incident will be discussed internally for learning points. We apologise for the delay and misunderstanding.”
