Please Find A Humane Solution To Remove Invasive Vervet Monkeys

The government of Sint Maarten in the eastern Caribbean has approved a controversial plan to cull its entire population of vervet monkeys, as the proliferation of the invasive species becomes an increasing nuisance on the Dutch island territory.

Authorities will fund the Nature Foundation St Maarten NGO to capture and euthanise at least 450 monkeys over the next three years in the territory which borders French St Martin.

Slaughtering monkeys is cruel and uncalled-for. True, vervet monkeys are an invasive species and cause a lot of problems; however, there must be a more humane solution than killing them. We the undersigned call upon the government of Sint Maarten to - if at all possible - find a better way to get rid of the vervet monkeys. We ask that the governing body look into humanely trapping the monkeys and removing them to where they will not cause problems, or sterilizing the monkeys to prevent them from breeding.

We hope that the Sint Maarten government will find a better way to deal with invasive monkeys than simply euthanizing them.