The future of dozens of monkeys housed at an “illegal” sanctuary will be determined this week when the owner goes to court to try to get a final interdict against Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, stopping their removal.
Officials from Ezemvelo raided the Umzizi Umkomaas Vervet Rescue Centre at the end of March, removing 59 of an estimated 117 monkeys.
It has now emerged in court papers that they were euthanised because no other licensed sanctuary could take them and they could not be released into the wild.
The owner, Tracey Rowles, has accused Ezemvelo officials of forcing their way into her premises, catching the monkeys in an inhumane way and cramming them into tiny crates in unbearable heat.
In early April she obtained an interim order preventing the removal of those they left behind.
The matter is now back in court on Wednesday for a judge to decide whether to make the interdict final or discharge it.
And Ezemvelo is fighting back.
It accuses Rowles of being an “unlawful hoarder of monkeys” and says the premises were “disgusting”.
While some monkeys could be released once they had healed from their injuries, some could not, for example, if they were too handicapped or babies whose mothers had died.
— Tracey Rowles
And it denies the animals were ill-treated when captured.
In her affidavit Rowles said she had run the primate rehabilitation and sanctuary centre for 18 years. She had applied for a permit in 2019 and believed this was still pending.
While some monkeys could be released once they had healed from their injuries, some could not, for example, if they were too handicapped or babies whose mothers had died.
“These join the sanctuary and are placed with other monkeys, and after a time they form a troop and then our goal is to release them,” she said.
Rowles said the Ezemvelo officials had, in February, given her 21 days to remove the monkeys from the premises, alleging she was contravening the Nature Conservation Ordinance. The eThekwini Municipality also issued her with a notice that she was contravening bylaws.
Her attorney contacted Ezemvelo asking for a meeting to discuss the way forward because she needed time to make arrangements for the animals, she said.
The response was that there would be no purpose to such a meeting and she was required to comply with the notice.
She said on the morning of the “raid”, Ezemvelo officials arrived with representatives of the SPCA.
She was taken to the police station and charged.
On her return, she witnessed the monkeys being captured “cruelly”.
She said the adults became aggressive and one, Marty, an alpha male, sustained a head injury, resulting in his death.
“They refused to say where the monkeys were being taken.”
The monkeys were being “well taken care of”, said Rowles. While she had previously applied for a permit, she had subsequently made a fresh application.
They were captured in difficult circumstances since the floor was slippery from the sludge of faeces, urine and fermenting fruit. Despite this, the capturers did not ill-treat any of them
— Dr Roy Jones, Ezemvelo district conservation manager
In his affidavit, Ezemvelo district conservation manager Dr Roy Jones said Rowles had only ever been given a two-year permit to run a “satellite rehabilitation facility” and that was only valid until September 2008.
Since then there had been several inspections and each time Rowles was told her “sanctuary” was illegal.
He said an inspection in February, showed conditions were disgusting, with rusted nails, rusted mesh, rusted foot sheeting, splintered, rotten floorboards and “an offensive odour of faeces, urine and fermenting fruit”.
“The SPCA indicated that all the cages had to be broken down and destroyed. They were unfit to hold any animals,” he said.
Rowles was issued with a notice to remove the monkeys within 21 days.
He said her pleas for more time have “become a default response”.
Jones confirmed that 59 monkeys had been removed. One, which was sick and taken by the SPCA, later died.
The others were euthanised at Umfolozi by two vets the next day.
He said it had been agreed with Rowles that 30 others would be taken to Thula Thula private game reserve, 20 juveniles and one adult surrogate female to Limpopo, and permits would be issued for their transport.
Rowles said that five others would be released within two weeks.
“The legislature considers the keeping of monkeys in captivity undesirable. Exceptions are made where an institution shows the ability to rehabilitate and release monkeys. They must be licensed. This is not a sanctuary; she is an unlawful hoarder of monkeys.
“The dreadful circumstances under which the remainder of the monkeys are still kept requires the discharge of the rule (interdict) as a matter of priority.”
Jones said the allegations of mistreatment during capture were “blatant lies”.
“They were captured in difficult circumstances since the floor was slippery from the sludge of faeces, urine and fermenting fruit. Despite this, the capturers did not ill-treat any of them.”
