We have recently again been inundated with requests to rescue several Macaques and accusations about our alleged involvement in the abuse of these animals.
The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team has rescued several primates from Angkor in the past that were reported by individuals such as yourself. The team is tasked with combating the illegal wildlife trade throughout the country, rescuing victims of trafficking and ensuring the best outcomes for each individual. We have recently been inundated with requests to intervene and rescue infant macaques that are seen on YouTube. We appreciate your concern and agree that no one wants to see this individual, or any animals, suffer.
However, our rescue team was created to combat the illegal wildlife trade and has limited resources. Sadly, we do not have the capacity to rescue every injured or abused animal in Cambodia, and by continuing to intervene in these matters and remove the animals we are just perpetuating these videos, channels and the behaviours of the filmers responsible for them.
As you may be aware, there are suspicions that the videographers filming these macaques interfere with the animals to ensure they have filming opportunities. We have been informed that often these interferences are of a cruel nature, such as causing or faking the death of a mother to ensure there is an orphan to film. A recent trend has been to hurt the macaques or otherwise put them in dramatic situations and then the VO’s will play the rescuers. The number of followers on the YouTube channels ensures that videographers are making a lot of money from their videos and therefore have a significant financial interest in continuing this activity.
However, you can help!
By taking the three steps outlined below, you can work to stop the abuse of these animals:
1) Most importantly, STOP WATCHING the YouTube channels. There is evidence that these filmmakers are abusing and otherwise interfering with these wild animals, including possibly killing individuals. By continuing to watch these videos you are directly and financially supporting these individuals and condoning and encouraging their behavior by doing so. They will not stop abusing the animals whilst they are receiving views and followers and therefore generating money from their videos.
2) Complain to the relevant authorities. By notifying the local authorities directly, they are able to take steps to protect the macaques and other wildlife in the Angkor complex.
Their details are as follows:
- The Apsara Authority – info@apsaraauthority.gov.kh
- The Cambodian Government Forestry Administration – info@maff.gov.kh or https://www.facebook.com/fa.maff.gov.kh/
- The Cambodian Ministry of Environment – info@moe.gov.kh or https://www.facebook.com/Ministry-of-Environment-314699302002531
3) Report any videos and channels such as these that exploit and abuse wildlife to YouTube. By reporting and flagging the videos, and encouraging others to do so, you can remove the financial incentive to continue abusing the macaques. Animal abuse is against YouTube’s terms of service, and they have recommended reporting the channels as ‘violent threats’ with a brief explanation.
As an animal lover, you can stop the abuse of these wonderful creatures.
Thank you for your help.
This week 5 monkeys were allegedly “put down” by you according to the VO’s. I didn’t even read that on a video from them but a different corner of YouTube. The situation is just bizarre and everyone is blaming each other.
Here is a link to the video – it is not WLA..it is the forestry department. This created about 7 baby orphans, one of which has since died after being attacked twice by large males, one of which punctured her lung.
https://www.facebook.com/121052192626129/videos/2433897053392531/
I believe this incident was a DIRECT result of the youtube people filming these monkeys and the way they constantly tease them with food to induce fights and has caused them to become very aggressive with food, as there is a large troupe here so they’re constantly fighting over the food being brought to them. But they are constantly offering food then taking it away or throwing out pieces between, say, a large male and a very young baby to cause the male to attack the baby, etc. From what I understand, they decided to cull some of the group (which ended up being a bunch of the mothers, stopping the group from growing so fast moving forward, and leaving LARGE group of orphans at the same time) because a tourist or a few tourists were bit.
I understand that you will likely be far too busy to respond to individual comments, but I do have a question if anyone at WLA has time to read it:
Regarding the information you have received about the abuse of macaques on YouTube – is this information coming from third parties, such as govt authorities? Or is it coming solely from viewer complaints?
The reason I ask is because I have seen many blatantly false(and frankly, hilarious) accusations thrown at VOs. There are a subset of viewers who seem determined to blame VOs for anything and everything. Some examples: a monkey that was nervous around humans kept showing her rear end to the cameraman in a classic submissive gesture. In the comments, people accused him of raping the monkey??? Since she was clearly displaying “sexual” behaviours towards him.
In another, a cameraman filmed a territorial dispute between adult male macaques in which you can clearly see one sustain a laceration to his flank. In the comments, the cameraman was accused of everything, from slashing the monkey with a knife, to maliciously kidnapping and releasing a rival male nearby to incite violence.
I ABSOLUTELY agree that VOs deliberately form unhealthy relationships with the macaques, making them too habituated towards humans and accustomed to begging for food. They do this knowing it’s wrong in pursuit of money. Some are guilty of other things(cough – the emotional destruction of Santa – cough).
But I would ask you to take any reports from “concerned viewers” with multiple grains of salt. Some are truly delusional or downright malicious.
Of course, my opinion is contingent on the fact that I haven’t seen concrete proof of accusations – only accusations being thrown around in YouTube comment sections, which are infamous cesspits of trolling and misinformation. I am open to the possibility that I’m wrong!
Anyway, as always WLA, thanks for your hard work and your patient handling of the macaque madness.
Stella, I couldn’t have worded this better myself!!!!!! The accusations are so bad they got nasty toward the VO because he wouldn’t climb a tree to say a baby monkey really high up and others accused him of actually turning off the camera and placing the baby in the tree.
Stella- Thank you so much for your well worded and rational comment. It expresses how I feel EXACTLY. I have read some unbelievable claims from viewers on YouTube. What surprises me, is how many people have bought into this idea. Adding fuel to the fire is the videographer Arroz Marisco, who has posted multiple videos on his take of the Cambodian VO’s. Needless to say, he paints them in quite a negative light. Despite the fact that Arroz is located in China, and despite the fact these VO’s are his direct completion, people take his word as gospel. (Side note: there are numerous websites that analyze and publish the earnings of YouTube channels. Depending on the month, Arroz makes somewhere between $3k-$7 a month off of his channel. There’s no question he has an incentive to tarnish his competition.) And while I believe he genuinely cares for animals, I don’t believe he has any right to condemn and generalize all of the Cambodian VO’s, when it’s pure speculation at this point.
Has there been a VO who has done something bad? Yes, I’m sure it has happened. But to say this is a constant occurrence and every VO does it, is just ridiculous.
There are so many VO’s out there at all times, that they police each other. It doesn’t make much sense for them to injure/kill a monkey just to get ONE video. They’d risk their entire livelihood if they were caught. They’d be arrested, or have the government ban their videotaping. Not only would that be a really stupid and short sighted thing to do, but there’s no way the other VO’s would allow it. If not because they care about the monkeys, then for sure because they don’t want their Youtube job put in jeopardy. Plus, if they wanted to harm a monkey, why would they do it here in a busy area, where many people know and care about the monkeys, and many people (VO’s and tourists) have cameras and would capture their malice.
I do not think the VO’s are completely blameless though. I agree that they should not be feeding them. The act of feeding causes a whole other subset of issues for the monkeys. But the truth is, you’d have to get the tourists to stop feeding them first, as they outnumber the VO’s 100 to 1.
Bottom line is, it’s unfair to group all of the VO’s together and brand them all as abusers/killers. Many of them have actually grown to love these animals, and have gone above and beyond on many occasions to help a monkey.
Let’s all be a little more compassionate, and assume that people are genuinely good, not evil.
Thank you WLA for posting this blog entry. As someone who has contacted your organisation previously when I was concerned about this very matter, it is actually very helpful to know where you actually stand and what your capacity is. While it is a little disappointing to hear that you are unable to be as involved in cleaning up this situation (so to speak), it is also completely understandable. I am sure that if you were adequately resourced, adequately funded and had the correct permissions to do so, that you would definitely want to be involved in ousting those savages who are exploiting these innocent creatures for financial gain.
I have to say that after everything I have witnessed in the videos I have previously watched, yours is the only organisation I trust within Cambodia. Before I was savvy to what was really happening behind the scenes, if there was a clip that showed an injured animal that one of the channel operators managed to capture and take to a local vet, I was impressed with their compassion. It did not take long, or a whole lot of investigation, to learn that on occasions the so-called “vets” in the videos were just people acting the part of a vet. In fact, I was even more surprised to learn that legitimate vets were hard to come by in Cambodia and that many of the so-called “vets” who operated clinics are not in fact vets at all … they are only accredited to basically desex cats and dogs.
I will be sure to share the link to this blog post as much as I can with everyone, but particularly those viewers who really need to be educated. The viewers that are constantly posting comments about how wonderful it is that these VO’s are taking such good care of these animals. It’s still so hard to believe that peoples delusions can be so powerful, even in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. At this stage, however, it does seem easier to educate the viewers then to try and get government to act upon the situation. It would be hard enough getting a legitimate government to act, but trying to get a corrupt one to do something decent ….. well I just don’t have enough money to make that happen..
Thanks WLA
Something I am finding is that people are coming up with the most disturbing conspiracy theories and they are extremely vicious to any one that disagrees and that every single VO is not a bad person. In any job or profession there are some not good people involved but not every one of them. By slandering every VO they are trying to get rid of them all because your monkeys here should not have contact with humans in anyway unless a trouble maker comes along then they want them to catch it and drop it off to a different group which you just can not do. It would be really nice to know who is telling the truth because I wouldn’t want people trashing my name and reputation because maybe I work with a couple bad nurses. If They don’t have proof they have done something then it’s just another rumor that is brought back here and wasting precious resources. Monkeys get hurt, fights, die, get sick, actually abandon there babies!!! But for a group of people turning in people that may have done nothing wrong is destroying what some have worked very long for!!!! Not every monkey can be saved and if you guys don’t show up there when one of these people message you then it’s another conspiracy theory pinned on the VO’s yet that is tolerated. When are the public going to get to see the proof that is supposedly out there? Are there no laws in place for these animals or animals kept in homes? Thank you for everything you all do. Ps I t would be very welcoming to people and more encouraging to donate if we were able to see how you all operate, how the monkeys are being housed how many animals are you puting down? A nice video tour!!! It’s hard to trust one group when we don’t see how sre money is used. Good show off what your able to do, areas where money is needed to upkeep or improve. This I believe would help you greatly!!!!
Really nice article we should for sure implent this!
I love those videos and I stopped watching except occasionally being unable to resist checking the welfare of certain individual monkeys.
Stop expecting WLA to prioritize these macaques, stop presuming to know what WLA’s priorities should be, they have been doing this we haven’t.
I hate seeing what the VOs do to them, I hate seeing them, or any living things come to harm.
The macaques aren’t endangered, although they are exploited.
Let these people do their work, stop trying to direct them.
If you don’t like it, stop watching the videos.
Believe me, I know it’s hard don’t try to be perfect try to be as consistent as you can.
Require each person have a license per channel to film the monkeys. That only one person filming per channel
WLA is not the government and your random ‘solutions’ are useless. This article is to inform people of WLA’s stance, their own weariness of those filming, and what their actual capabilities are to help. Suggesting they create some law is ridiculous.
that was not a punctured ling Lizza dies from – she had a feeding tube in her throat, and the *UNTRAINED* cameraman as assigned to put it into her stomach. He shoved the feeding tube into the wrong branch down into her lung instead of her stomach, and pumped her lung full of milk.
She drowned in milk by not receiving treatment by a trained vet tech.
I have seen the video, he does not go slow or take care or ask for help.
I was just curious if you have any thoughts about the public dropping of
Their pets macaques?!? These animals range from young juveniles to young adults. These guys have been
With humans since they were maybe 4-6 weeks old. They all have had a troop member attack them.
It’s been two years since I’ve posted a comment (during the Lori/Amari rescue) but here I am, again. Firstly, thank you for rescuing the macaques who were being held captive at the makeshift “NGO” (aka holding cell for filming) that the Cambodian cameramen created. They continued to abduct the animals and create false narratives, such as: “the monkey was ‘attacked’ and we rescued it”, you know how they work. Neonate Dalton’s mother Dolly died at the hands of yet another fake “vet”, leaving Dalton an orphan. I believe Dolly was intentionally euthanised by them in order to take her infant to film hundreds of videos per day. These people must be stopped! I’ve contacted Apsara, as well as multiple government agencies, and have once again reported their antics. They have become more bold and brazen than ever before. I realise macaques aren’t classified as endangered in that region, however, I deeply appreciate your continued involvement. Thank you again and may all your endeavours be blessed.
Thanks for the effort Dr. C!
Those Cambodians vos have a syndicate of people working in their groups to control the drama and filming opportunities. No monkey there is safe from exploitation and cruelty until YouTube enacts animal cruelty standards or the Cambodian regime decides they are not being bribed enough money to look the other way. As long as these strange and bizarre western women give them money, setup GoFundme and other channels to give them lots of cash they will continue their evil practices. They don’t care about the monkeys, it’s just business to them when they kill, harass or abuse them for channels views. Its sickening but it’s becoming more prevalent not only there but in other countries like Vietnam, or Thailand. Incidently, Vietnam still continues to run Cambodia from their dark and evil places without a care in the world for animals. It’s a wonder that a large NGO like the WLA can even function in that world, but they do make a difference in the poaching of animals and rare trees with the excellent rangers they train. They can actually do something and need your help financially so go help them live I have please.
Youtube need to stop monetizing these videos. Failing that VOs must also learn that chilled monkeys grooming eachother is far more interesting than drama.