Monkeys Saved From Being Eaten Alive
October 24, 1998 - 0:0
PHNOM PENH Authorities in the Cambodian capital saved 70 monkeys from being smuggled to restaurants in Vietnam where diners tuck in to their brains while the animals are still alive, a government official said. Rich people love to eat the brains of live monkeys, said the chief of Phnom Penh's Forestry Department, Bou Bunleng. As far as I know they have a wooden table with a hole in it and clip the head of the monkey and open its skull with a saw.
The monkeys, a type of spider monkey, were found packed in cages on the back of a truck on Monday. The smugglers escaped. People believe eating it makes them more healthy and smart, but in Cambodia we don't (eat them), he said. A smuggled monkey fetches about $40 in Vietnam, he said. The seized monkeys, caught in swampy forest on the fringes of Cambodia's Tonle Sap Great Lake, were sent to a zoo south of Phnom Penh. (Reuters)
The monkeys, a type of spider monkey, were found packed in cages on the back of a truck on Monday. The smugglers escaped. People believe eating it makes them more healthy and smart, but in Cambodia we don't (eat them), he said. A smuggled monkey fetches about $40 in Vietnam, he said. The seized monkeys, caught in swampy forest on the fringes of Cambodia's Tonle Sap Great Lake, were sent to a zoo south of Phnom Penh. (Reuters)