Brazen monkeys
Straits Times Forum 23 Oct 08;
MADAM TAN GEK KIM: 'Recently, wild monkeys have started to appear in my garden in Clementi Park. When I tried to shoo them off, they bared their teeth and advanced towards me. I ran into the house and closed the windows and doors. Subsequently, my two big dogs barked at two monkeys which tried to find a way into my kitchen. Again they bared their teeth at me when I tried to shoo them off, unafraid of humans or dogs.
When I called the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to solve the problem, the AVA offered me the loan of monkey traps for two weeks and said they would retrieve any trapped monkey if I caught it.
The AVA said the reason monkeys ventured into residences in the first place was that people feed them. Such monkeys expected to be fed. The AVA should start culling monkeys, rather than wait for the population to swell uncontrollably.'
