Spank This Monkey ... and He'll Drop Kick You

16. Great to see so many other people object to this, I contacted the US office of WWF yesterday and they have emailed me (in the UK) today saying they will investigate the matter and take it up with TMZ (hurragggh!).

I have also forwarded this video link to Monkey World (charity here in the UK that rescues performing primates, there is probably no chance of finding out where this poor defenceless WILD animal is, unless TMZ want to get in touch with MonekyWorld or WWF and tell them where they got this video from.

Seriously TMZ you should take it down and get a handle on what constitutes funny, next you'll be telling us child abuse is ok too?!

Posted at 3:07PM on Oct 8th 2008 by Caroline Johnson

17. Tribal9 you have answered your own question, primates mimic those around them in a quest to learn and survive, which in this instance is watching humans in a restaurant, which part of that do you think is their natural habitat? I am pleased to hear that at least the primates are treated well, but Mary Chipperfield also said the same until undercover footage proved otherwise, regardless of your comments I still disagree.

These primates should be in the wild where they mimic each (and as for smelling like they would in a zoo, what kind of argument is that, zoos are no more natural and primates smelling in the wild is perfectly natural - stop trying to defend the humanization of a beautiful wild animal)

On a final point contact Alison Cronin at Monkey World and she will explain the damage primates wearing clothes, shoes and gloves has been proven to cause including skin problems, damage to their development and worse, and again is un-natural.

Posted at 5:15PM on Oct 8th 2008 by Caroline Jonson

18. I am surprised that David Weintraub isn't repping the monkey yet
:-))

FG

Posted at 6:02PM on Oct 8th 2008 by Frosty Gagger

19. His name is Yat-chan

Posted at 7:12AM on Oct 13th 2008 by Jeannette

20. Albeit it a month down the line I received the following response from Monkey World today, strangely no response from TMZ and I am still going to contact them again:

Apologies firstly for the delayed response but we have been inundated
lately. Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us about this sick
video.
Sadly thee are 1000's of similar disturbing photographs and videos such
as this on line and under current legislation or lack of are powerless
to do little about it.
This particular macaque Yat-chan is the same one that has featured more
recently on the BBC and many national newspaper as one of the macaques
that is being forced o work as a waiter in a restaurant in Japan. The
BBC chose to run it as a funny story not commenting at all on how cruel
and exploitative this is or asking for organisations like ourselves to
comment or give the full picture of what the poor monkeys would have
entailed in order to perform such a task. We have offered to give
interviews but to date no-one has taken us up on it. We have received a
barrage of complaints about this particular feature and it is comforting
to see that on the link you sent that the majority of comments were
opposing it, this is sadly not always the case.
Sadly this is not an isolated case there are a number of monkeys being
exploited in this part of the world in the so called name of
"Entertainment".

The exotic pet trade is still legal in most countries - including the
United Kingdom. We are still campaigning to get the British Authorities
to change the laws in this country and to encourage international
reform.

Similarly, the use of non-human primates for the entertainment trade is
also still legal and so there is very little that we can do in this
case.

Again we are campaigning for both national and international reforms to
be made. There are even less regulations and enforcement in South East
Asia when it comes to animal welfare.

You can help our campaigns by writing to the Japanese Embassy demanding
that they stop this barbaric treatment and change their legislation to
protect primates. Their address is 101-104 Piccadilly , London W1J 7JT
or e-mail info@jpembassy.org.uk

In this case you may also like to complain to the website for allowing
the video to be shown if you have not already done so. I hope WWF
discontinue their association with the web site after being notified of
this video.

Please be assured that we do keep all such reports on file for future
reference and to help us with our campaigns.

Thanks again for your keen interest. For further information please see
our website at www.monkeyworld.org

Kind Regards, Jackie

Posted at 1:48PM on Nov 6th 2008 by Caroline Johnson