Monkey business: Abductors demand ransom for kidnapped baby chimps
Three baby chimpanzees were kidnapped from an animal sanctuary in Africa by a gang of criminals — who are now demanding a ransom for the young primates, according to reports.
The chimps — named César, Hussein, and Monga — were taken from Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga, which is located near the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s border with Zambia border on Sept. 9.
“This is the first time in the world that baby apes were kidnapped for ransom,” Franck Chantereau, the sanctuary’s co-founder, told CNN.
Chantereau said the chimpnappers broke into the sanctuary around 3 a.m., and took three of the five young apes that the sanctuary rescued this year. The two remaining adorable creatures were later found hiding in the kitchen.
An hour after the abduction, Chantereau’s wife, Roxane, received three messages and a video of the chimpanzees. The kidnappers claimed to have drugged the animals and threatened to hurt them if they did not receive the ransom.
“They told us that they had planned to kidnap my children because they were supposed to come here on vacation,” Chantereau explained.
“But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us.”
Franck Chantereau worries that paying the kidnappers could establish a precedent for future abductions.
“Obviously, it’s impossible for us to pay the ransom,” he said.
“Not only do we not have the money, but you need to understand that if we go their way, they could very well do it again in two months, and also we have no guarantee that they will return the baby to us.”
Michel Koyakpa, the media adviser to DRC’s environment minister, agreed with Chantereau’s assessment.
“We will not give in to this kind of demand,” he insisted.
“[The kidnapping] is inhumane and unnatural.”
Authorities are reportedly still trying to identify the kidnappers, whom the Chantereaus have not heard in over two weeks.
The chimpanzees’ abduction is not the first time JACK, which is situated along major smuggling route from the DRC to South Africa, was targeted. In 2006, a few months after its opening, two baby chimps were killed when their sleeping area was set on fire.
Seven years later, in September 2013, the education center was torched.
But while Franck Chantereau admits that he is “completely devastated” by the kidnapping, he is also determined to continue rescuing chimps from smugglers.
“To catch the babies, they have to kill the entire family in the jungle, usually between 8 and 10 individual apes, and a lot of the baby apes will die before reaching their final destination,” he lamented.
Chantereau also thinks that chimp kidnappings will become more common, as smugglers look to peddle exotic animals to wealthy buyers.
“All these animals are becoming rarer in the forest. We in the sanctuaries, we have animals, they are healthy. It’s clear that it’s much easier for these people to attack us,” he said.
