The ‘Snow Monkey’ (Macaca fuscata), is an incredible animal. But it’s plight in Japan is very troubling. There are two main areas of concern:
Firstly, these macaques are raised from infancy in the homes of humans who become their life-long trainers, forcing them in to a life of degrading circus-style performance, deprived of their ability to express natural behaviours.
Furthermore, tourists are encouraged to feed wild Snow Monkeys in so-called “Monkey Parks”. This false availability of food in turn allows them to reproduce more quickly, so in one respect, their wild population of 100,000 is considered to be thriving by conservation standards.
However, as habitat loss continues due to human encroachment, more and more human-wildlife conflict is caused, and the macaques are being captured and killed at a rate of at least 10,000 per year, because local authorities put the interests of farmers first.
As our appeal letter, signed by 155 expert global animal welfare expert NGO’s states, it is galling for some humans to encourage their population to thrive whilst other humans are killing off the ‘surplus’. Imagine all the unnecessary suffering.
For more on the story, read the english version of our letter HERE