Activists call for Boogie the monkey to be removed from Ontario roadside zoo

Animal welfare activists are calling on the province of Ontario to rescue a young macaque monkey displaying “troubling” behaviour at a roadside zoo in the town of Kincardine.

“We have filmed him performing stereotypical behaviours, which include spinning in circles, pacing back and forth in a repetitive motion, and also appearing to bite himself,” animal rights lawyer Camille Labchuk said.

“He lives by himself, so far as we can tell, in this enclosure and for those three years he has remained in that location every time we visit him and we are very troubled by what we’ve seen,” she said.

Animal Justice, a non-profit animal law organization, is calling on animal welfare authorities to seize the monkey, named Boogie, and relocate him from Bervie Zoo to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland.

Labchuk said Animal Justice has filed multiple legal complaints with provincial animal welfare services about Boogie’s condition, but so far they have failed to remove him.

Georgia Mason, director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, viewed video of Boogie and referred to his movements as “classic abnormal behaviour.”

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“It’s showing stereotypic behaviour, which are these repetitive rhythmic movements, so that’s the pacing and twisting and then the self-biting is a very common form of self-harm that you see in laboratory animals if they’re kept in poor conditions,” she said.

Mason said “most shocking” to her is seeing the monkey alone in the enclosure because primates are “highly social.”

“The fact that this animal has been by himself for at least two years and presumably many years longer, looking at his behaviour is just really not OK,” she added.

In 2023, World Animal Protection Canada, a non-profit organization, found Ontario does not have a provincial zoo licensing system and called its regulations “weak and non-existent” when it comes to roadside zoos.

“You don’t need a licence or a reason or any qualifications to keep an exotic wild animal like a monkey in our backyard and you can keep them in any conditions you like,” said Melissa Matlow, senior wildlife campaign director.

Matlow said she visited Bervie Zoo a few years ago and is calling for it to be shut down.

“It’s one of those substandard roadside zoos that Ontario has problems with so I’m not surprised there are concerns of an animal suffering there. Ontario is the worst jurisdiction when it comes to lax regulations for captive wildlife.”

NDP MPP for St. Catharines Jennie Stevens wrote a letter to solicitor general Michael Kerzner “on behalf of those who do not have a voice of their own – animals kept in captivity.”

“The lack of meaningful animal welfare regulation and enforcement in Ontario has allowed facilities like Bervie Zoo to operate under substandard conditions, resulting in the suffering of vulnerable animals like Boogie,” Stevens wrote in her letter.

She told Global News they are seeking “fairness to animals,” to ensure they are protected and not kept alone, and for their well-being to be the “top priority.”

Hunter Kell, press secretary for the solicitor general, wrote in a statement: “Our government has made Ontario a leader in the protection of animals with the strongest penalties and first enforcement system of its kind in the entire country. We expect everyone responsible for animals to ensure they are being well cared for.”

Kell pointed to the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act passed in 2019 “to ensure a robust, transparent and accountable system to protect animals” and the “Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales (PUPS) Act to help ensure the safe and ethical treatment of dogs and crack down on unethical dog breeding” as ways the government is showing its commitment to the welfare of animals in Ontario.

A request for comment by Bervie Zoo went unanswered.

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