Monkey shot dead by staff in alert over rabies

Published on Saturday 9 February 2008 10:06

A MONKEY has been shot dead at Edinburgh Zoo after it escaped from its rabies quarantine cage.

Visitors were evacuated from the park or taken to a safe location during a two-hour hunt for the monkey – a tailless Barbary

macaque. The animal went on the run from a rabies quarantine area at the zoo on Tuesday.

The animal was tracked down several times running through the zoo but efforts by staff to stop it with a tranquilliser gun all failed.

With daylight failing, zookeepers decided to shoot the animal dead after fearing that it might get lost in the zoo's 82 acres of parkland.

Iain Valentine, head of animals at the zoo, which is home to more than 1000 animals, said shooting monkey was the only choice they had left after the attempts to tranquilise it had failed.

He said: "Having to shoot one of the animals in our care is a regrettable situation but the welfare of the public has to be our primary concern.

"We have robust procedures in place to deal with an escape situation.

"The animal was in rabies –quarantine at the time and we had to act quickly to ensure public safety."

The zoo bosses contacted Lothian and Borders police, who said they were happy that the situation had been handled in the right way.

Edinburgh Zoo was last placed on escape alert in March 2006 when a teenage gang destroyed the door locks on the tiger enclosure.

The youths were chased by security staff after finding them tampering with the doors of the Siberian tigers' pen.

However, the tigers were found still inside.