Vets to be charged over monkey

File picture - Criminal charges will be laid against two East Rand veterinarians for allegedly "butchering" a Vervet monkey, the National SPCA said. Photo: Jennifer Bruce

File picture - Criminal charges will be laid against two East Rand veterinarians for allegedly "butchering" a Vervet monkey, the National SPCA said. Photo: Jennifer Bruce

Published Oct 16, 2012

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Johannesburg - Criminal charges will be laid against two East Rand veterinarians for allegedly “butchering” a Vervet monkey, the National SPCA said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Jaco Pieterse said one of the vets, from Springs, apparently operated for unknown reasons on the stomach of the small, black-faced monkey. He allegedly amputated the two back limbs and a front forearm and then kept the animal alive.

An independent veterinarian described the operation as “a butcher's job”.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it would lay criminal charges against the vet in terms of the Animals Protection Act.

Charges would also be laid against a second vet, who allegedly kept the monkey in a bedroom. The two had been reported to the SA Veterinary Council.

Pieterse said when officials went to remove the monkey from the vet's premises, they found it chained by the remaining limb in a cage.

“(The monkey's) quality of life was so compromised that it was deemed cruel to keep her alive... the Vervet monkey was humanely euthanised and her body has been sent for a post-mortem examination,” Pieterse said. - Sapa

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