EDITOR – To ‘Gatvol’ and other monkey haters.
I am also ‘gatvol’ – of reading all your complaints about these ‘vermin’. You do realise that these are primates and so are you.
As mentioned so often in previous correspondence to this newspaper, these animals were here on the Bluff hundreds of years before you. If people are willing to kill, maim and poison these creatures it is not surprising that people are willing to do the same to their own species, as headlined in our press daily. Vervets battle to survive and I suppose they can be regarded as pests by the larger species of primates who will not try and share this world with its wildlife.
Central feeding platforms away from housing may be the answer to helping them instead of destroying them.
They cannot shop at the supermarkets and buy trolleys of supplies for themselves and their families. People can be so greedy – they fill two and sometimes three trolleys full of food and one wonders if they really need all that excess. Monkeys have to rely on their wits to survive in a world we humans have taken over. They cannot obtain jobs or earn money to buy the necessities of life, so when you fill your supermarket trolley with everything you need and more, think on this. They only take food – not riches or human life.
Personally I think you should concern yourself with the larger species of primate who rob, hijack and murder people every day. Read the papers. Ignore the monkeys and they will ignore you. Use your energy to help the SAP, COP and Rake Jeeves who attempt to eliminate crime in our area and stop whining on about the monkeys.
For 11 years I have watched and been entertained by these creatures who co-inhabit the Bluff. We are privileged to have nature in our gardens and it is a pity you do not appreciate this. Their interaction is fascinating and if you have ever watched a mother vervet with her baby you may realise that there is much we can learn from them as far as love and protection of their young is concerned. They do not abuse their young or their elderly and you call them vermin?
For any more complaints, do add your name and address to your correspondence and don’t hide behind anonymous pseudonyms.
T MIDDLEMISS
Monkey hugger