It is disturbing for the following reasons:
- It highlights a terrible breakdown in the human-to-animal relationship.
- It tells us that monkeys in urban environments in India are learning bad behavior from humans or are aggrieved by human behaviour as some believe that they steal dogs to kill them in retaliation for dogs killing their young.
- Or the monkey’s want to protect their young from marauding dogs which if true is another indicator of a breakdown in the human-to-animal relationship as humans have allowed dogs to procreate without limit because of a failure in domestication including a failure to sterilize.
- And of course, humans appear to have taken over the monkey’s habitat in India leaving them to inhabit the human urban environment where they are pests to the residents.
However, you analyse the problem it is down to lax human behavior as I see it. Is there another conclusion that can we can come to?
On occasions the residents recover the dogs by throwing fireworks at the monkeys who release the dogs. A far from ideal solution as the dog can fall to the ground and be harmed.
A little while ago I wrote about the real Planet of the Apes being played out in India.
“India is set to overtake Japan and Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy, according to S&P Global and Morgan Stanley. S&P’s forecast is based on the projection that India’s annual nominal gross domestic product growth will average 6.3% through 2030”. A quote from CNBC.
Failure
So, India is an advanced nation in terms of economics but what a f**k**g failure in terms of wildlife and relations with wild and domestic animals. This should not happen. It is strongly indicative of failure. A failure to manage animals humanely and decently. It is indicative as far as I am concerned with the wider failure of humankind to live with nature and to protect nature which at the end of the day is protecting the planet which supports us all.
Humankind needs more focus on these issues. At the moment there is just a mad rush to top the economic growth tables at the expense of the environment. India also has an abysmal record concerning plastic pollution with dead, blackened rivers and blackened skies polluted by coal burning which they refuse to stop in the interests of guess what: economic growth.
India doesn’t have a great relationship with monkeys. PETA tells me that:
- Monkeys are sometimes exploited to pick coconuts for their milk and – PETA India report: “Monkeys Chained, Abused for Coconut Milk” on Twitter, a ghastly video.
- Monkeys were taken from the wild during Covid for experiments for a cure for Covid which was misguided as monkey carry diseases which would have made the research less than useful as per PETA. PETA forced them to stop the experiments.
These sorts of urban monkey behavioral problems exist in other countries. “Mugged by macaques: the urban monkey gangs of Kuala Lumpur”. The title of an article in the Guardian. Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia. You know it is not great, is it? The sloppy relationship with wild animals which inevitably leads to animal abuse at the end of the day.
World’s tallest flying bird adopts the Indian villager who saved him
Snakes can be murder weapons in the Indian state of Rajasthan
