Lopburi police powerless to stop sex-crazed, junk food-addicted monkey gangs
Since March, the city of Lopburi has battled monkey riots, as the Covid-19 pandemic dried up tourism, and thus, the primates’ main food source. Locals, in an effort to appease beasts, began feeding them, largely a diet of sugary junk food, with predictable results. Police, armed with slingshots, say there’s little they can do to stop the sex-crazed macaques who’ve overrun the city. Now wildlife experts say the monkeys are literally eating themselves to death.
Residents in the tourist town are afraid to leave their homes due to the vicious creatures, who have set up headquarters in an abandoned cinema and developed a taste for junk food. Mirror Online reported in June that around 6,000 monkeys were terrorising locals, attacking anyone who stood in their way.
Some residents first thought the best way of calming the overzealous monkeys was to give them sweets and fast food, but this has just made the situation worse. Their new sugary diet has made hyperactive and made life miserable for the people of Lopburi.
One police officer told the reporters that trying to disperse large groups was “hopeless”.
“Within a blink of an eye, there are more monkeys. So many babies.”
The monkeys are developing health issues as a result of their unhealthy diet; the urban monkeys have less muscle than wild macaques, with many suffering from hypertension and blood disease. According to the director of a regional office of the Wildlife Conservation Department:
“The monkeys are never hungry, just like children who eat too much KFC.”
The number of monkeys has doubled in 2 years, and in recent months large brawls between rival gangs have terrified people living in the city.
Now it’s is reported that parts of the city have become no-go areas, and the monkeys have made a nuisance of themselves by tearing through shops and businesses, leaving a trail of destruction.
SOURCE: The Mirror
