Tragic end for monkey doused in paint

CROW is appealing to all communities to stand together against cruelty to animals and to report any suspicion of animal cruelty to the local SPCA, police station or Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

This comes following a call from a concerned resident in Chatsworth who reported a monkey in distress. When the team from CROWN arrived at the scene it they were greeted by a distraught homeowner who had found the monkey in his yard when he returned home from work.

CROW’s Director, Paul Hoyte, said: “The young male was in a dire state after being completely doused with white paint while tied up. Once the paint had dried, it appears the rope was cut, and the monkey was left to wander through the Sliverglen Nature Reserve before seeking refuge in a garden. Once at the CROW centre, the clinic team found that the monkey’s circulation to his back foot had been completely cut off, resulting in tissue damage. On top of this, his genitalia had been sealed shut by the paint resulting in an immense amount of pain and a nasty infection.”

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Once the team began to remove the paint, shaving tufts of hair away where necessary, they discovered small but deep lacerations all over the traumatised victim. Hoyte said it is assumed that these could have been caused by the monkey himself while trying to remove the dried paint from himself.

“It could have also been caused by his own troop who would have been thrown off by the monkey’s appearance and pungent fumes from the paint. After intensive treatment, it was determined that the monkey was not going to survive and the only thing left to do in this case was to humanely end his suffering,” he said.

Sadly, this is not the first case fielded by the CROW team, who have seen a spike in these types of cases over the past few years. Steve Smit from Monkey Helpline also confirmed that they have seen more and more cases in recent years. Steve explained that the psychological and emotional damage caused would live with the monkeys for the rest of their lives.

Hoyte added: “It is frustrating that these cases continue to worsen, despite all the media coverage surrounding these heinous acts of animal cruelty. What’s more frustrating is that this does not serve as an effective method to deter monkeys, it is a blatant contravention of the animal protections act. This particular case is the worst we’ve seen and while this has been reported to the SPCA, without knowing where exactly he came from, there is little hope for the investigation unless someone comes forward with witness testimony.”

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