Every monkey held by Nasa was put to death on a single day last year, in a move that has enraged animal welfare campaigners....
BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Every monkey held by Nasa was put to death on a single day last year, in a move that has enraged animal welfare campaigners.
A total of 27 primates were euthanised by administrated drugs on February 2 last year at Nasa’s Ames research center in California’s Silicon Valley.
The monkeys were ageing and 21 of them had Parkinson’s, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.
The decision to kill off the animals rather than move them to a sanctuary has been condemned by animal rights advocates and other observers.
The coronavirus has upended our way of life – but it’s also having a dramatic impact on animals across the globe, too, from black rhinos being poached in Botswana to a coughing tiger in New York and emboldened goats on the streets of Wales.
Global wildlife trade is in the spotlight
The pandemic is thought to have originated at a market selling wild animals in China, throwing a spotlight on the global wildlife trade. Wildlife conservation societies are urging governments to ban live animal markets, and stop illegal trafficking and poaching of wild animals.
There are growing calls for countries around the world to ban “wet markets” – which sell live and dead animals for human consumption – to prevent future pandemics.
Poachers are taking advantage of quiet nature reserves
From Africa to Colombia, there have been reports of a rise in poaching of endangered species as tourists stay away and many park rangers are left out of work.
In Botswana, government workers have been evacuating black rhinos from the Okavango Delta after six of the animals were reported to have been killed in March.
Zoo animals are getting sick and missing human attention
Zoos across the globe have been closed as part of national lockdown and zookeepers say their most intelligent and social animals, like gorillas, are missing the attention of humans.
Wildlife is running...wild
With humans self-isolating in their homes, animals that usually stay away from urban areas now have space to roam. In northern India, a herd of deer was caught on camera walking the streets of Haridwar during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Meanwhile, wild boar have been spotted in the centre of Barcelona, Spain. In Wales, mountain goats are causing havoc on the streets of Llandudno while rival gangs of monkeys brawled over food in Lopburi, Thailand.
