Jakarta aims to end the performing monkey trade
Jakarta's governor, who says animals are abused, aims to get them off the streets by offering compensation to every handler
Lying low in a slum in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, monkey handler Tardi does not dare take his long-tailed macaque out to perform in the streets for fear of being caught in a new crackdown.
He and fellow handlers have been keeping a low profile in recent days after city authorities launched their toughest bid yet to rescue the animals, which they say have been kept for years in squalid conditions.
Tied to leashes and forced to wear doll masks and beg for money as they totter along on their hind legs, the performing monkeys have long been a common sight in teeming, traffic-clogged Jakarta.
But in recent years authorities and animal-rights groups have been stepping up efforts to crack down on the practice, and city governor Joko Widodo has now announced a plan to get the animals off the streets by 2014.
"This has become an international issue," Widodo said. "Please have pity for these monkeys who have been abused by their owners."
After taking power in October last year, he ordered officials to step up efforts to get the monkeys off the streets, but the campaign that got under way this week is his most ambitious yet.