Vietnam: instigator of monkey torture photos fired from military
Photos posted online of Vietnamese troops abusing rare monkeys and forcing the primates to smoke have pressured Vietnam’s army to fire a soldier.
What's dumber than buying extremely rare primates, forcing them to feign smoking and having them skinned?
Snapping photos of your monkey torture session and posting them on Facebook.
That unfortunate chain of events has prompted Vietnam's army to dismiss a soldier whose Facebook-uploaded monkey torture snapshots have gone viral. According to outlets Asia One and the Associated Press, it appears the monkeys were bought off villagers and abused for kicks.
What's worse is that the monkeys — according to an expert quoted by VietnamNet — belong to the species "pygathrix cinerea," more collouially known as the grey-shanked duoc.
That is a species that simply cannot afford to lose numbers to cruel thrill seekers.
The monkeys do not exist outside a limited zone in Vietnam. And, according to this academic study from the Vietnamese Journal of Primatology, fewer than 1,000 remain on the planet.
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?