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AIBU?

AIBU to think this is actually quite a serious issue?

19 replies

Carrie5608 · 29/03/2015 16:08

Two monkeys escaped from belfast zoo it took a week to catch one. Ok I get that they are cute etc but they are wild animals I have recently watched outbreak
here

OP posts:
FirstWeTakeManhattan · 29/03/2015 16:12

Probably, but there only so many things I can really worry about at one time. The monkeys haven't made the cut, but obv I hope they are found safe and sound etc.

Carrie5608 · 29/03/2015 16:15

They have been found safe and sound. If i lived in that housing development I would want some reassurance on the fencing used for tigers, snakes etc

OP posts:
KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 29/03/2015 16:31

It's only risky if they're Rat Monkeys.

Or are infected with rage.

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 29/03/2015 16:33

Has anyone here been to Isle Of Wight Zoo?

Beautiful big cats but worryingly poorly constructed cages. Mostly that green plastic fencing.

Luckily they're well fed because if they wanted to get out they probably could...

wigglesrock · 29/03/2015 20:50

The monkeys escape every so often from Belfast Zoo, I think the red pandas did a runner for a while a few years ago. What do you think might happen? The monkeys might catch something from the visitors or staff then pass back? They might release a virus they have cooked up themselves? The peacock actually runs free at the Zoo, Christ knows what peacock apocalypse is approaching Wink

CalleighDoodle · 29/03/2015 20:53

or are infected with rage

Grin

ItsAllKickingOffPru · 29/03/2015 20:57

It's probably most serious for the animals as if someone caught them who didn't know what they were doing they (the animals) could get hurt.

Butterflywings168 · 29/03/2015 21:08

Monkeys do bite and can pass on diseases.
They also steal annoying little fuckers.
YANBU.

CatthiefKeith · 29/03/2015 21:12

Years ago the man that owned the zoo on the Isle of Wight used to exercise his tigers on the beach early in the morning. Shock

I wish an escaped monkey would make it's way to my house, I'd love it!

beanandspud · 29/03/2015 21:16

Could be worse...

Four lions escaped in Grimsby.

Grin

Lausarama · 29/03/2015 21:19

Quite serious for the monkeys yes. Anyone else, no, not really.

BikketBikketBikket · 29/03/2015 21:31

When my DC were small (years ago) we lived in a house whose garden backed onto what had just become the West Midland Safari Park. One afternoon I fetched pram in from garden with sleeping child in it, and then watched 6.0 news which informed us that 67 baboons had escaped from their enclosure that afternoon.... Shock

They recaptured all but one.....Hmm

SurlyCue · 29/03/2015 21:35

"They recaptured all but one.....Hmm"

You sure you brought a sleeping child in from the pram? Grin

Tanith · 30/03/2015 18:11

I think Gibraltar has a serious problem with monkeys. They can be a real menace.

SaucyJack · 30/03/2015 18:21

Like this Joff.

AIBU to think this is actually quite a serious issue?
geekymommy · 30/03/2015 19:13

It's not terribly likely that a disease outbreak would start from an escaped zoo animal.

First, the monkeys would have to get a disease. The most likely way for that to happen is contact with other members of their own species. That's not going to happen a lot with zoo monkeys, unless they were recently captured in the wild (or had cage-mates who were). Lion-tailed macaques, the species to which these monkeys belong, are endangered, so it's not likely that zoos are capturing them in the wild. It's far more likely that zoos are breeding them with the intention of returning some of them to the wild. In Outbreak, the monkey that brought the disease to the US was a recently captured wild monkey, not a monkey from a zoo.

Next, the monkeys would have to escape. A sick monkey is probably less likely than a healthy monkey to be able to escape and evade capture. You'd probably have a harder time evading someone who wanted to capture you if you had the flu, the same is likely to be true of a sick monkey. In Outbreak, the monkey didn't escape on its own, it was smuggled by a person.

Then you have to have a virus that is easily transmitted between monkeys and humans, and between humans and humans. That's not that typical. Lots of viruses, including rabies and Ebola, require contact with bodily fluids to spread. Viruses don't generally mutate in ways that change how they are transmitted (the virus in Outbreak did this). Scientists are not terribly worried about Ebola mutating and becoming airborne like measles or the flu but still being as nasty as it is now. That's just not likely to happen. Even if you did have wild monkeys infected by an airborne virus that could be really nasty in humans, how likely is it that zoos would be capturing and exhibiting monkeys that were at all likely to have been exposed to that virus? Without any kind of quarantine period?

DurhamDurham · 30/03/2015 19:16

I loved the film Outbreak, watched it a few times.
However much I love the film though I hate the part when they have time to discuss their failed relationship.....while they are battling a terrible disease which has no known cure. I just know if I was a world renowned scientist person I would keep my home and work life separate Grin

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 30/03/2015 20:02

Even monkeys contained in cages are pretty dangerous.

I have a documentary about it on DVD.

Wink

SAHD63 · 30/03/2015 20:31

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon I have a cousin who knew someone who has been to a zoo and they said that really happened...

I have seen the future and it is not good

Zoos are the least of our problems, if you really want to know how we will all die try this

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