USUALLY when families drive through the monkey forest at Woburn Safari Park
north of London, the trees ring with the delighted shrieks of children as the
rhesus macaque monkeys clamber over the cars and try to remove the windscreen
wipers. But one day last month, the sound of children gave way to the crack of
silenced rifles.
When the shooting was over, 215 monkeys had fallen from the branches. Next it
was the turn of the 100 rhesus macaques at West Midland Safari Park near
Birmingham, then 89 animals at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling in
Scotland.
The monkeys…
