A three-and-a-half-year-old chimpanzee, tied to a two-meter-long chain, injured and forced to live in conditions totally incompatible with its nature. This is what the Carabinieri of the CITES Unit of Catania discovered during a check at a home in Cassibile, in the Syracuse area, with the support of the local station and veterinary staff from the Syracuse Health Authority.
The animal, belonging to the Pan troglodytes species, protected by the CITES Convention and classified as highly endangered and potentially dangerous to public safety, was held without authorization by a Maltese citizen resident in Italy.
The veterinarians confirmed the seriousness of the situation: the chain had caused a significant lesion in the groin area, a clear sign of prolonged and inappropriate detention.
According to the owner, the chimpanzee had been purchased on the black market in Malta and smuggled into Italy. This case, the Carabinieri emphasize, demonstrates how the illegal trafficking of wildlife—including primates—continues to be a thriving and dangerous business, fueled by networks of poachers who steal cubs from their mothers in the wild, contributing to the collapse of already depleted populations.
The chimpanzee was immediately seized for mistreatment and illegal possession of protected species. He was rushed to the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Messina for initial treatment, and then transferred to the Bioparco in Rome, a facility authorized to house animals belonging to dangerous and threatened species. Here, a team of specialized ethologists will begin a recovery process, with the goal of eventually reintegrating him into a social group of his own kind. Unfortunately, experts explain, the possibility of the young primate being reintroduced into the wild is extremely remote: domestic confinement and the behaviors imposed by humans have now irreparably distanced him from the wild.
During the search, an Eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) was also found, also without the necessary CITES documentation.
The Carabinieri renew their appeal against the purchase of exotic animals of uncertain origin: each purchase fuels an illicit market that seriously damages global biodiversity and endangers species already threatened with extinction.
(Unioneonline/Fr.Me.)