Risk $3k fine for feeding monkeys

Selina Lum, Straits Times 7 May 08;

FEED a monkey and you stand to be fined $3,000. A High Court judge yesterday said this amount would be the new benchmark punishment for such offences.

Judge of Appeal V.K. Rajah made it clear that the figure was just a starting point - the fines could go higher or lower, depending on the circumstances of each case.

For example, the judge said, someone who purposely drives to a nature reserve to feed monkeys will have the book thrown at him.

But someone who does it 'casually' may get a lower fine. He did not elaborate.

This benchmark applies to offences after last December, when the problems caused by monkey feeding were highlighted in the media.

Justice Rajah laid down the sentencing guidelines after he slashed the fine handed down to a 45-year-old cook for feeding monkeys at a Mandai sanctuary near Old Upper Thomson Road.

In January, Mr Panneerselvam Arunasalam was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine after he admitted feeding bread to the animals in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve on Aug 5 last year. It was the steepest fine ever imposed for the offence.

Mr Panneerselvam paid $2,000 before he appealed to the High Court to reduce the fine on account of his financial situation.

He claimed he had not intended to feed the animals but was surrounded by monkeys which snatched his lunch. However, a park ranger saw him throwing bread to the primates out of his lorry.

Yesterday, Justice Rajah said there was a need to send a clear message that feeding monkeys increases the risk of them behaving aggressively. But this was not the appropriate case to do so.

One reason was that Mr Panneerselvam's offence was committed before heightened coverage in the newspapers last December about the ills of feeding monkeys.

Justice Rajah noted that the district judge who fined Mr Panneerselvam had also relied on the wrong precedent. Then, prosecutors cited a case that attracted a $2,000 fine. But it emerged at the appeal that the past case involved someone who fed monkeys to trap them. That was altogether a more serious offence.

Justice Rajah reduced the fine to $1,000.

Mr Panneerselvam, who did not have a lawyer, told reporters he was happy with the verdict. He had to borrow from relatives to pay the fine.

Following reports of monkeys attacking people, the authorities have warned that feeding them makes the primates bolder in approaching people. When food is plentiful, the monkeys multiply. And instead of foraging for their own food, they tend to stray into residential areas.

Last year, 157 people were caught feeding monkeys, up from 142 in 2006. Eighteen people were convicted over this period while the rest paid $250 composition fines. In February, the National Parks Board doubled the composition fine to $500.

Monkey feeder's fine slashed to $1,000
Ansley Ng, Straits Times 7 May 08;

THE man who was fined $4,000 for feeding monkeys in a nature reserve — the steepest penalty ever imposed for the offence — got a reprieve after the High Court reduced it to $1,000.

In slashing the fine, Justice V K Rajah, however, added that the benchmark penalty for such an offence would now be $3,000. He said the actual fine imposed could differ depending on the circumstances of the offence or the culpability of the offender.

Panneerselvam Arunasalam, a cook, had pleaded guilty in January to feeding monkeys in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve in August last year. A park ranger had spotted Panneerselvam, 46, giving out bread to monkeys in the reserve near Old Upper Thomson Road, despite signs in the area warning against doing so.

The National Parks Board (NParks) says feeding monkeys adversely alters their behaviour as they stop foraging for food and rely on humans instead. They may also behave more aggressively against humans.

Such feeding also results in the unhealthy growth of the wild monkey population, and monkeys straying outside of nature reserves into residential areas. They often have to be culled for this reason, NParks said.

Panneerselvam was fined $4,000 by a district court for flouting the Parks and Trees Act. He paid $2,000 and arranged to pay the balance in monthly installments of $500, which he subsequently defaulted on.

Yesterday, Justice Rajah reduced the fine, saying Panneerselvam's case was not the "appropriate" one to send a message to the public since he committed the offence before the media highlighted the problem of monkey feeding last December.

Following his case, there was heightened media coverage about wild monkeys and the threat they pose when they become too dependent on humans for food.

Panneerselvam could have been fined up to $50,000 and jailed for up to six months. Panneerselvam said he managed to pay half of the initial fine by borrowing from relatives.

Saying that the initial penalty of $4,000 was "ridiculous", he told Today: "I am thankful to the court for reducing the fine."