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Baby monkeys beaten up in 'animal torture porn'
An animal rights group today urged police to take action against individuals who allegedly tortured a baby long-tail macaque, to generate followers and income on social media.
Dr Kartini Farah Abdul Rahim, representing the NGO Hak Asasi Hidupan Liar Malaysia (Hidup), said she lodged the police report after receiving a tip-off from an international animal rights group.
Based on the information she received, the alleged perpetrators had recorded footage of them torturing the animal and sold the recording...
An animal rights group today urged police to take action against individuals who allegedly tortured a baby long-tail macaque, to generate followers and income on social media.
Dr Kartini Farah Abdul Rahim, representing the NGO Hak Asasi Hidupan Liar Malaysia (Hidup), said she lodged the police report after receiving a tip-off from an international animal rights group.
Based on the information she received, the alleged perpetrators had recorded footage of them torturing the animal and sold the recording on a Telegram group called 'Monkey Haters'.
"I received information of cruelty against baby monkeys, whereby several Malaysians had shared videos of themselves hitting, slashing, burning and scalding the animal with hot water, for their own pleasure and to receive money from followers.
"This is extremely cruel and should be investigated by police immediately," she told reporters after lodging a police report at the Shah Alam district police headquarters today.
Her lawyer, Rajesh Nagerajan, who accompanied her, said the animals were hit with blunt objects or tortured to the extent that they were shrieking in pain.
"In the process, the perpetrators took photos and videos and published them on Telegram, like trailers.
"If anyone in the Telegram group wants to view the full video, they have to pay a certain sum to the perpetrators.
"This is what is called torture pornography," he said, adding that the video was sold around the world through the social media application.
Crime under animal protection law
He said the perpetrators need to be apprehended immediately and charged under the Animal Welfare Act 2015 and the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2015, those found guilty of animal cruelty can be fined between RM20,000 and RM100,000 or fined up to three years, or both.
The long-tailed macaque is listed as a wildlife species protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Torturing wildlife protected under this act is punishable with a fine of not less than RM5,000 and not more than RM50,000, or imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
Despite their seeming abundance in Malaysia, long-tailed macaques are an endangered species worldwide and their numbers are decreasing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The population is suspected to have undergone a decline of about 40 percent in the last 40 years, and is expected to decline a further 50 percent in the next 40 years, the IUCN said.
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