[Watch] Pet Monkey In Kedah Enjoys The Balik Kampung Ride In Ativa
The monkey was seen leaping excitedly by the side of the car and netizens had mixed feelings about it.
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Recently, the Raya holidays sees us going back to our hometown to celebrate Eid with families and friends.
For those with pets, some them may leave them in pet hotels, ask a friend to watch over them, or just bring them along to their hometowns, too.
We’re generally talking about pet cats and dogs here but this person on TikTok saw a peculiar pet enjoying his balik kampung ride.
In his TikTok account last Monday, @psyclepath94 shared a video that he took while driving on the North-South Expressway in Baling, Kedah.
In the video, he was passing a red Perodua Ativa with its windows down when he suddenly saw a little monkey climbing out of the front seat and clinging to the side the moving car.
The monkey, believed to be a long-tailed macaque which is native to Malaysia, was seen in a light blue shirt with diapers, while also having a little leash connected to its collar.
Stunned by the rare view, @psyclepath94 joked in his caption saying that even monkeys go back to their hometowns for Eid. The video garnered 2.3 M views and 92 K likes at the time of writing.
@psyclepath94 Beruk pun balik raya utara #raya2023 #viral #fyp ♬ original sound – Nashrul Sekon
Netizens are amused and worried at the same time
People in the comment section were also amused seeing the monkey jumping up and down while hanging from the side of the car.
Some of them assumed his excitement was because he can’t wait to celebrate Eid. Others assumed that he was venting out his frustration due to the jam.
However, some people are also worried that it might pose a threat to the monkey’s safety and other road users.
Besides that, as reported by NST, National Road Users Association acting president Fahami Ashrof Badaruddin commented on the monkey issue. He said that apart from endangering the monkey’s life, the situation poses a risk to other motorists.
“Other road users can be implicated if the monkey’s chain snaps. There is also a risk of the animal falling from the car.
“Other drivers might get a shock when they see the monkey appearing out of nowhere and popping out from a car window. Such things could lead to a road accident,” explained Fahmi.
He said the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) should also step in because monkeys could potentially cause harm when they are in an urban setting.
Although it’s normal in rural areas, it’s still illegal to own them without a licence
Monkeys and humans have been coexisting since the early times, especially in rural areas in Malaysia. Back in the olden days, it was not rare to see a villager adopting a monkey as their pet, specifically to help its owner in daily tasks like getting coconuts off trees, warding off predators or pests and more.
However, they are still a part of wildlife and the behaviours of these creatures can’t 100% be controlled. Even though some of them are tame and trained, they might react differently in a public or urban setting. Plus, zoonotic diseases are also a cause of concern.
Previously, there are tons of cases where pet monkeys owned without a permit or licence were taken away by authorities from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan).
The Baim case
One such case was a little monkey named Baim.
In Penang, Baim was found abandoned at the side of the road when he was still a baby. A woman named Lyza assumed that his mother was either hit by a car or accidentally left her baby.
Lyza took the monkey in and cared for him like her own child for years. She trained him to live with her family and he grew an affinity to them.
@lyza_kakhangpa AYAQ MATA IBU BUAT BAIM 😭 16/3 CUKUP 3 BULAN BAIM TINGGALKAN IBU 🥺 HABIH DAYA DAN USAHA DAH IBU ABAH BUAT KAT BAIM SUPAYA BAIM BALIK,TAPI PIHAK SANA MASIH X BAGI DAN LANGSUNG X BGI KERJASAMA WALAUPUN BERTANYA KHABAR BAIM SAJA PUN ‼️ #fypã‚·ã‚šviral #rindubaim #sayangbaim #productbaimspecialedition ♬ Cinta Sampai Mati – Kangen Band
However, it is understood that she didn’t have a licence to own a monkey so last year, Perhilitan had to do their job and take him away.
Lyza was reluctant to give him away as she was worried that Baim couldn’t survive in the wild. A few days after they took him, she got to know that Baim escaped the enclosure to ‘come back home’. She went to look for him in the forest for two days and found him in a weak state, probably hungry for food.
Perhilitan then again came to take Baim away after a while and she never got to hear about him again ever since. But she promised to try her best to get Baim back legally.
Some people supported Lyza’s cause and hoped that these kinds of monkeys should be an exception from being taken away as they have already assimilated with the human environment. They could potentially die in the wild and that would be a waste.
What about you? What do you think of the pet monkey situation?
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