Break­through: Java monkeys back with AAP foun­dation

The five Java monkeys confiscated on the port of Rotterdam in 2014 have been taken back to the Dutch monkey foundation AAP, following an adoption motion proposed by Frank Wassenberg. Last February, the Ministry of Economic Affairs decided to move the animals from the AAP foundation to the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) in Rijswijk, to the displeasure of a majority of the MPs.

In 2014, five Java monkeys were discovered as stowaways on a ship from Malaysia. The animals were first brought to the AAP foundation, where they were nursed and taken care of in the following eighteen months. The Ministry of Economic Affairs was responsible for the monkeys and in February decided to send them to the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) in Rijswijk. According to Party for the Animals MP Frank Wassenberg, this was an unwise decision. He called the BPRC “the very last place we should want to send these monkeys”. His motion to place the monkeys with the AAP foundation on a permanent basis was supported by a majority in the Lower House.

Wassenberg welcomes the fact that on 20 June, the monkeys were brought back to the AAP foundation: “The AAP foundation has looked after these monkeys for eighteen months. I am pleased that they will now be able to stay with AAP permanently, where they are in good hands.”