AT least 11 monkeys have been poisoned to death by some unidentified people in Madhya Khagdi area of Madaripur town on Tuesday. It was alleged that some people poisoned the starving monkeys. Bodies of four monkeys were sent to Madaripur Livestock Hospital for autopsies. Seven other were buried beside a canal. Many monkeys became ill after being poisoned. People came to know about the brutal incident when a group of youths posted footage and photos of the dead animals on Facebook and demanded justice for their death. According to Department of Forest, there were around 2,500 monkeys in Wards-8, 9 of Madaripur Municipality. The Forest Department distributed food among the monkeys until last week when a 76-day feeding programme ended. The starving monkeys then started visiting nearby localities in search of food. Some people might have given poisoned food to the monkeys to stop the nuisance by them. The forest officials on Wednesday filed a case in this regard.
We’re very much shocked seeing the inhumane activities of some people to the innocent and helpless wild animals. They were hungry, so they went to the locality to get some food. It was local people’s moral obligation to feed them. If they had no such capacity, they could inform the matter to the police or local administration. But slaughtering a number of animals cannot be a righteous way to treat with. In July last year, the Parliament passed the Animal Welfare Bill 2019 with stricter penalties for cruelty to animals. In fact, the law was enacted with a view to stop cruelty towards animals and to ensure responsibility for their welfare. Even stray animals — not owned by any individual — must be treated with compassion. During the ongoing corona closures, we saw many families in Dhaka coming forward to feed the street dogs and cats in their localities. It’s humanity. But the incident of Madaripur has raised a question whether we’re human beings.
Poisoning animals is a crime. We must say the relevant government departments should take care of this cruel incident in accordance with the law. But one thing, we cannot understand why the Department of Forest was so careless about the welfare of the wildlife.
