A troop of monkeys forced to dance for tourists have been freed after their cruel torture was exposed by the Daily Star Sunday.
The 31 macaques were dressed in costumes, made to do jigs, ride bikes and even smoke cigarettes to make money on the streets. A Jakarta Animal Aid Network team, backed by World Animal Protection (WAP), rescued the creatures from port city Cirebon in Indonesia.
This newspaper exclusively revealed in August how they were snatched by their tails from the wild as babies and stuffed into sacks after watching their mothers get shot.
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They were then starved, beaten and chained by the neck, forced to wear masks, dressed as dolls and made to stand for hours or thrown into tiny cages.
A WAP spokesman said: “All 31 monkeys have now been rescued from Indonesia’s last remaining monkey dance training village by Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN), with the support of World Animal Protection.
(Image: Marc Walker)
“All these monkeys have now been transferred to JAAN’s rehabilitation centre in Cikole, West Java. Their rehabilitation programme will focus on nursing them back to health, and if possible, preparing for them to return to the wild again.”
The charity’s head of animal welfare and research Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach said: “These monkeys have endured one of the cruellest training regimes imaginable.
“After being stolen from their mothers as babies and tortured for months, their living nightmare is finally over.”
Dr Schmidt-Burbach added: “We helped end bear dancing in Greece, Turkey, India and Nepal, and now we are one step closer to ending these horrific dancing monkey practices in Indonesia for good.
“We look forward to the day when we can celebrate a nationwide ban on dancing monkeys.
“Macaques are wild animals who have the right to live a wild life. We’re happy that together with our partners at Jakarta Animal Aid Network, we can give these monkeys a second chance.”
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