How would you like to be overrun with monkeys? Especially monkeys carrying diseases. In Puerto Rico. the easy life is over for hundreds of monkeys, some harboring herpes and hepatitis. They have run wild through southwestern Puerto Rico for more than 30 years. Now authorities have launched a plan this month to capture and kill the monkeys before they spread across the entire island, threatening agriculture, native wildlife and possibly people.
Some animal experts and farmers who have complained for years about the rhesus and patas monkeys think it may be too late already. Dr. Mark Wilson, director of the Florida International Teaching Zoo which has helped find zoos willing to take some of the animals, feels they will never get rid of the patas monkeys there. They may go deep into the forest, but they will never go away. There are just too many of them and they are too smart.
Rangers began trapping them in cages that are about 10 feet long, bated with food and equipped with a trip lever. Two of 16 monkeys were released with radio collars for further tracking too. There are at least 1000 monkeys from at least 11 distinct colonies in the Lajas Valley. Officials decided shooting the monkeys was more humane than lethal injection. They regret having to kill the monkeys but have no choice since 92 organizations have rejected them. The scourge of non-native animals in Puerto Rico is particularly acute because of its lush climate and lack of predators.
Animal treatment is a sensitive topic in Puerto Rico, when there were seized 80 cats and dogs from a housing project and hurled them off a bridge. In May, a veterinarian confirmed that 400 racehorses, many in perfect health, were killed by injection in Puerto Rico each year.
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