Nong Nong forced to lift weights and perform for tourists at a Phuket zoo – VIDEO
A monkey has been filmed lifting weights and doing other ‘tricks’ for tourists at an unnamed zoo in Phuket. Footage was shot by people recording the video for PETA, the global animal rights group, of the monkey being forced to lift weights and do press-ups as entertainment for the island’s tourists.
The monkey is an indigenous Macaque species and named ‘Ning Nong’.
The undercover footage shows a handler forcing the monkey to lift metal weights above its head and do sit-ups. The monkey then has to slam-dunk balls into a net, ride a bicycle, stand on a tiny wooden stool and do press-ups, according to the Mirror Online.
The video, released by PETA Asia, was reportedly recorded in Phuket and shows a chained monkey named Ning Nong being forcibly taught tricks to entertain tourists.
“It has a metal collar and appears to be in distress while it is dragged around the squalid building in temperatures higher than 30C.”
PETA representatives also believe the monkey had its teeth removed, “rendering it incapable of defending itself”. The animal welfare campaigners allege they targeted the venue “after previous footage emerged of the appalling treatment of monkeys in Thailand’s wildlife entertainment tourism industry”.
PETA are now vowing continued pressure on similar centres that abuse monkeys.
”Ning Nong is treated like a money-making toy, forced to perform meaningless tricks for tourists and then left isolated in a wire cage when he’s not being used.”
”This will only end when people supporting experiences that use animals.”
Jason Baker, PETA’s senior vice president of international campaigns, claimed that monkeys don’t choose to walk on their hind legs, wear clothes, ride bikes, or perform other meaningless and humiliating tricks. They’ve simply learned to fear what will happen if they don’t.
”Circus trainers break monkeys’ spirits using violent methods that rely on the fear of punishment. They force animals into a lifetime of slavery.”
Jason also alleges that the monkeys are ”snatched from their mothers at birth” before being forced into a life where they are ”deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them”.
”Exhibitors who force animals to perform do so because they profit from it, but it’s the animals who suffer.”
Thailand’s tourism industry has come under fire over zoos, animal shows and elephant riding camps marketed to holidaymakers. The Phuket Zoo has had multiple complaints made through Trip Advisor and stores about abuse of orangutangs and elephants at the facility. Here is the tragic stories of Milo the orangutan and Dumbo the elephant at the Phuket Zoo.
SOURCE: mirror.co.uk
