Airgun kills Bluff vervets
A petition has been started by Monkey Helpline calling on government to ban unconditional private ownership of airguns in South Africa.
TWO vervet monkeys were shot and killed on the Bluff on Wednesday, 18 June by an unknown airgun-wielding resident.
A concerned resident called animal rescuers, Carol Booth and Steve Smit from Monkey Helpline to her home in Starling Place, near the Bluff military base, after she found an injured monkey in her back yard. She believed it had been bitten by a neighbour’s dog, which had been barking at the injured animal. Upon inspection, however, the rescue duo determined the female adult vervet had been shot by a pellet air-gun. “Her body revealed she had been shot through her right shoulder into her chest and the red, frothy blood from her nostrils was a clear indication she had bled into her lungs and died from this injury,” said Smit.
As they were driving away, a neighbour signalled for them to stop and they were shown to a second dead monkey – this time an adult male. “He was paralysed in the rear part of his body and a check revealed he too was the victim of pellet gun shooting. The lead pellet from the airgun had entered his body on the right side of his back and penetrated the vertebra of his spine, damaging the spinal cord and causing paralysis. Both monkeys suffered extreme pain and terror after being shot.”
Smit said they are called to the Bluff at least once-a-week for monkeys shot by lead pellets. “In the area frequented by the troop of monkeys from which these latest two victims came, we have rescued at least six airgun-shot monkeys in the last year or so.
This particular troop also loses members frequently to motor vehicle-related deaths or injury on Lighthouse Road, so as a troop, this community of vervet monkeys is under severe threat of being totally wiped out. When such a shooting takes place, this is not the first or last time it will happen,” he added.
The use of airguns in a built-up area is illegal as per the Firearms Control Act (60 of 2000). “The only way to stop the shooting is to have the shooter prosecuted, and this can only happen if a witness to the shooting is prepared to go to the police and lay a charge under the Firearms Control Act.
Shooting at monkeys with a pellet gun is unnecessary, cruel and illegal. Pellets always cause severe pain when shot into a monkey’s body, and if a pellet penetrates the abdomen, the chest or the head, it leads to a lingering, excruciatingly painful death that can take up to two weeks or more. Cruelty to animals can be punishable with a fine of up to R20,000 and punishment can include a jail sentence.”
A petition has been started by Monkey Helpline calling on government to ban unconditional private ownership of airguns in South Africa. For information on the petition or vervet monkeys, go to www.monkeyhelpline.co.za or call 082-659-4711 or 082-411-5444.
