Singapore Repatriates Pet Monkey: Blue Goes Home

Louis Ng, President, Animal Concerns and Research and Education Society (ACRES)
August 2004

In May last year, I first met Blue, a young vervet monkey from South Africa. We didn’t meet in the best of circumstances. He was chained up and housed in a rusty cage in a factory in Tuas (on the western coast of the island of Singapore), and I was there to drag him away from his familiar surroundings.

His owner had informed the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) about her pet vervet monkey, and asked if IPPL knew of a home for Blue. Keeping primates as pets in Singapore is illegal, so IPPL forwarded the information to my organization, Animal Concerns and Research and Education Society (ACRES).

The search for a new home

After months of investigation and negotiations with the owners, we were finally brought to the place where Blue was kept to do a confiscation, together with Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.

So there I was, looking at Blue, and wondering how in the world I was going to get him out of his cage without getting bitten. It took us half an hour but we finally managed to get him into our transport cage.

Blue then spent the next three days at my house before being sent to the Singapore Zoo. In these three days, we bonded and groomed each other. Gone was the aggressive Blue who had been biting people.

Blue, giving Louis one last grooming session before he left

I always believe that animals know when we come to help them and in this case, after some time, I was sure that Blue understood what I was doing.

We tried for the next few months to secure a permit from South Africa to repatriate him to the Vervet Monkey Foundation there, but unfortunately we never got a positive response from the government. We still wanted to send Blue back to his native Africa, so our next option was Munda Wanga, a sanctuary in Zambia. It took a whole year of work but, in May 2004, Blue was finally allowed to go to Munda Wanga.

Blue’s journey back to Africa

I accompanied him on the same flight, like a worried parent. I checked countless times to make sure he boarded safely and made sure that he got food and water during transit stops.

We finally arrived at Munda Wanga on 5 May 2004, 16 hours after leaving Singapore. Blue survived the long flight and I truly hoped that this would be the "happy ending" to his long, arduous life’s journey to date.

Like all primates in the illegal pet trade, Blue had survived a horrible childhood. At a young age, Blue had been forcibly separated from his family and made to endure a long voyage on a ship from South Africa to Singapore. His owners in Singapore had chained him up and kept him in a cage. When we rescued him, he weighed only 4.2 kg; now he is 7.0 kg (over 15 pounds).

Blue’s future bright-others not so fortunate

After three weeks of quarantine at the sanctuary, Blue will be introduced to Chippy. Chippy is a young male vervet monkey who was brought in by some locals who found him injured in the bush. Chippy and Blue will spend a few months together before being released into a large new open-topped electrified enclosure.

It’s a happy ending for Blue, but countless others have lost their lives in the illegal pet trade.

Each year, thousands of animals are captured from the wild for this kind of illicit trafficking. Removing these animals from their natural habitat not only damages the fragile ecosystems from which the animals are taken, but also threatens the species’ very existence.

More than half of these animals die during transportation, and the surviving animals mostly end up living in poor conditions. We urge you not to buy these illegal pets and to please spread the word.

I left Zambia with a heavy heart. Honestly, it was hard to part with Blue. He gave me one last groom, and I gave him one last groom. I wish him all the best and hope that he does well socialising with other vervet monkeys. It won’t be easy but, after all these years of living with humans, it is time for Blue to find out that he is a vervet monkey.

In Appreciation to All of Blue’s Friends On behalf of Blue, ACRES would especially like to thank Munda Wanga for accepting him for lifetime care. We are grateful to Stichting AAP for funding the repatriation. We also thank the International Primate Protection League, Gorilla Haven, and all the ACRES members that have provided additional funding and contributed to giving Blue a new lease on life. We also extend our appreciation to the Singapore Zoo for caring for Blue after his confiscation and helping us with the logistical arrangements.