Dear Editor,

I would like to respond to the article "Kind Words – Monkey Business" that was in Saturday's Weekender, describing a possible monkey problem on St. Maarten.

The article was interesting, but the writer mentioned that the problem might be partly due to the Zoo. It was also mentioned that "if the Zoo manages to control its monkey population, then they should share this information so we can come to a positive solution for the animals and our society."

I would like to state for the record that the writer did not contact the Zoo to discuss this with us and the Zoo has never had any problem with its monkey population. None of the monkeys, I repeat, none of the monkeys roaming free on the island are from the Zoo.

We have never lost or released any of our monkeys from the Zoo. In fact, we have taken in wild monkeys from people many times. We still get calls every day, but we are no longer able to accept extra monkeys ourselves.

The Zoo has long preached the negatives of owning exotic pets. St. Maarten is now faced with problems which we have been publicising for years.

The monkeys roaming St. Maarten were originally all brought in as pets and then escaped or were released, and now are successfully multiplying in the wild.

This is a problem that is man-made and the Zoo states strongly once again that the public should never own exotic pets. It just doesn't work. The animals are not in the wrong. It is we humans, who have made the mistake. The animals are only trying to survive.

The Zoo is eager to do whatever we can do to help. We have been in contact with the Nature Foundation and are ready to work with them on their monkey project in order to find some positive solutions.

We do agree with the writer of the article that using the animals for animal testing and experimentation is not the answer.

Barbara Cannegieter