Crackdown on monkey business
Security forces are fanning out across Jakarta conducting raids to rescue macaques used in popular street masked monkey performances in a move aimed at improving public order and preventing diseases carried by the monkeys.
The city government will buy back all monkeys used as street buskers for about $90 and shelter them at a 2.5-acre preserve at Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo. The handlers and caretakers will be provided vocational training to help find new jobs.
Animal rights groups have long campaigned for a ban on the shows, which often involve monkeys wearing plastic baby doll heads on their faces. They say the monkeys are hung from chains for long periods to train them to walk on their hind legs like humans. Their teeth are pulled so they can't bite, and they are tortured to remain obedient. The monkeys are often outfitted in dresses and cowboy hats and forced to carry parasols or ride tiny bikes.
Many of the macaques are trained at a slum area in eastern Jakarta, known locally as "monkey village." A trained macaque can be sold for up to $135.