Activists call for Boogie the monkey to be removed from Ontario roadside zoo

Animal payment activists are calling connected the state of Ontario to rescue a young macaque monkey displaying “troubling” behaviour astatine a roadside zoo successful the municipality of Kincardine.

“We person filmed him performing stereotypical behaviours, which see spinning successful circles, pacing backmost and distant successful a repetitive motion, and besides appearing to wound himself,” carnal rights lawyer Camille Labchuk said.

“He lives by himself, truthful acold arsenic we tin tell, successful this enclosure and for those 3 years helium has remained successful that determination each clip we sojourn him and we are precise troubled by what we’ve seen,” she said.

Animal Justice, a non-profit carnal instrumentality organization, is calling connected carnal payment authorities to prehend the monkey, named Boogie, and relocate him from Bervie Zoo to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary successful Sunderland.

Labchuk said Animal Justice has filed aggregate ineligible complaints with provincial carnal payment services astir Boogie’s condition, but truthful acold they person failed to region him.

Georgia Mason, manager of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare astatine the University of Guelph, viewed video of Boogie and referred to his movements arsenic “classic abnormal behaviour.”

“It’s showing stereotypic behaviour, which are these repetitive rhythmic movements, truthful that’s the pacing and twisting and past the self-biting is simply a precise communal signifier of self-harm that you spot successful laboratory animals if they’re kept successful mediocre conditions,” she said.

Mason said “most shocking” to her is seeing the monkey unsocial successful the enclosure due to the fact that primates are “highly social.”

“The information that this carnal has been by himself for astatine slightest 2 years and presumably galore years longer, looking astatine his behaviour is conscionable truly not OK,” she added.

In 2023, World Animal Protection Canada, a non-profit organization, recovered Ontario does not person a provincial zoo licensing strategy and called its regulations “weak and non-existent” erstwhile it comes to roadside zoos.

“You don’t request a licence oregon a crushed oregon immoderate qualifications to support an exotic chaotic carnal similar a monkey successful our backyard and you tin support them successful immoderate conditions you like,” said Melissa Matlow, elder wildlife run director.

Matlow said she visited Bervie Zoo a fewer years agone and is calling for it to beryllium unopen down.

“It’s 1 of those substandard roadside zoos that Ontario has problems with truthful I’m not amazed determination are concerns of an carnal suffering there. Ontario is the worst jurisdiction erstwhile it comes to lax regulations for captive wildlife.”

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NDP MPP for St. Catharines Jennie Stevens wrote a missive to solicitor wide Michael Kerzner “on behalf of those who bash not person a dependable of their ain – animals kept successful captivity.”

“The deficiency of meaningful carnal payment regularisation and enforcement successful Ontario has allowed facilities similar Bervie Zoo to run nether substandard conditions, resulting successful the suffering of susceptible animals similar Boogie,” Stevens wrote successful her letter.

She told Global News they are seeking “fairness to animals,” to guarantee they are protected and not kept alone, and for their well-being to beryllium the “top priority.”

Hunter Kell, property caput for the solicitor general, wrote successful a statement: “Our authorities has made Ontario a person successful the extortion of animals with the strongest penalties and archetypal enforcement strategy of its benignant successful the full country. We expect everyone liable for animals to guarantee they are being good cared for.”

Kell pointed to the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act passed successful 2019 “to guarantee a robust, transparent and accountable strategy to support animals” and the “Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales (PUPS) Act to assistance guarantee the harmless and ethical attraction of dogs and ace down connected unethical canine breeding” arsenic ways the authorities is showing its committedness to the payment of animals successful Ontario.

A petition for remark by Bervie Zoo went unanswered.