No monkeying around this export plan

SRI Lanka’s plan to export up to 100,000 monkeys to China as zoo exhibits is under scrutiny after allegations arose that they would be sacrificed for meat instead, Malaysia Nanban reported.

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said Sri Lanka received a request from China for 100,000 monkeys which would be housed and exhibited in more than a thousand zoos across the country.

China will be paying about 50,000 rupees (RM680) per monkey.

“They would have to sell each monkey at about double that price if the animal is used for meat,” the minister was quoted as saying.

He said most people in China would not be willing to pay that much for monkey meat, so the exported monkeys would end up in zoos as intended.

● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.