Voice of America reported that animal rights activists staged a protest after the Sri Lankan Agriculture Minister announced that the authorities are planning to export 100,000 endangered toque macaque monkeys to a private Chinese company. Conservationists and animal rights activists claim that Chinese zoos do not have space for the number of toque macaques that are being exported, and the members of the species that are endemic to Sri Lanka will be used for testing in labs.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list of endangered animals includes the Sri Lankan toque macaque. It’s anything but a safeguarded animal categories in Sri Lanka.
After the declaration, traditionalists and basic entitlements activists cautioned, in any case, they don’t really accept that the Chinese zoos have space for 100,000 hat macaques and that it was almost certain the monkeys would be utilized for testing in labs.
According to the authorities in Sri Lanka, farmers in the country view the approximately 3 million toque macaques as a threat because they harm crops.
“Among the animals that harm crops in this country, toque monkeys are the most common. “The government has failed in every attempt so far to reduce its population,” Amaraweera stated.