SHUT DOWN THE MONKEY STERILISATION CENTRE UNTILL THE FOREST DEPARTMENT ESTABLISH A SUITABLE SOP

Prompted by complaints over the treatment of monkeys at the Monkey Sterilisation (MSC) in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand – part of the state Forest Departments’ effort to control the population of monkeys in the area – inspectors with Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), People for Animals and PETA India inspected the facility in Himachal Pradesh and revealed that no written standard operating procedures are in place to ensure the humane treatment of the monkeys during capture, handling, transport, housing, surgery, post-operative care and release, which leads to injuries, starvation, prolonged captivity and other abuses.
The facility also operates on pregnant monkeys in the absence of an ultrasound machine to detect pregnancy and does not have a weighing machine to measure out anaesthetics properly. During the period between February 2007 and February 2014, a total of 29,038 monkeys were captured and 24,751 were sterilised – 4,557 (or 16 per cent) of whom were unfit for sterilisation, as they were found to be either pregnant or already sterilised.
The report further revealed that the monkeys were rarely, if ever, given any pain relief after surgery and that the only oral analgesic available in the post-operative unit was acetaminophen (paracetamol), which provides only mild pain relief. The monkeys huddled together in pain and fear inside tiny, rusted, filthy and barren cages, and many of them – some of whom were pregnant – were starved for more than 24 hours and held captive for more than five days.