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Turkish authorities sparked outrage when they discovered a baby gorilla languishing in the hold of a flight from Nigeria. On December 22, officials inspected a Turkish Airlines flight bound for Thailand and found a five-month-old gorilla—later called “Olive” in turkish– wrapped in a crude box barely bigger than his body.
A gorilla in a dirty shirt and small box
If you think economy class is hell, Olive faced a far more nightmarish ordeal. When the authorities opened the makeshift box, they found The olive wearing a dirty shirt with only a small dish and banana peels scattered across the floor of the box. He endured nearly seven hours of terror and discomfort—over 3,000 miles—sitting in his waste, isolated and exposed to deafening engine noise.
Where was Olive’s mother?
In the wild, gorillas nurse their young, and infants depend on their mother’s milk for the first few years. Gorillas, which are endangered, live in close family groups and fiercely protect their babies. But Olive’s mother was nowhere to be found on his flight to Thailand. Who snatched him from his mother’s side to fly halfway around the world and why did no one at the airport in Nigeria intervene?
Although his final destination is unclear, an animal importer and breeder in Bangkok is reportedly linked to the shipment, according to the Bangkok Post.
Where is Olive the gorilla now?
We don’t know if Olive was meant to be a ‘pet’ or used for entertainment in Thailand, but he is safe and recovering from his stressful trip in Istanbul. In a statement this week, the Regional Director of Istanbul Nature Conservation and National Parks suggested that Olive can return to her homeland in Africa.
This horror happens all the time
What happened to Olive is probably illegal, but sending monkeys to labs is LEGAL! PETA has uncovered evidence of that Africa’s largest airlineEthiopian Airlines, has sent thousands of endangered monkeys halfway around the world for use in cruel and deadly experiments.
These monkeys are packed into small wooden boxes – like the one Olive flew in – and forced to sit in their own faeces, urine and blood before being taken to laboratories and killed.
Federal authorities have alleged that a black-market monkey smuggling operation in Southeast Asia is taking wild-caught monkeys from their natural habitat and falsely labeling them “captive-bred” before flying them to the United States. A federal lawsuit revealed that Ethiopian Airlines flew hundreds of these allegedly laundered monkeys from Cambodia into the hands of an American laboratory supplier.
Do you want to help?
When we think about the individuals around us – whether they are a baby gorilla named Olive or a frightened macaque torn from their home – we can recognize that everyone is someone who feels love, sadness, joy, pain, fear and hope.
Please take a few seconds today to call on Ethiopian Airlines to stop sending monkeys to laboratories for use in cruel and deadly experiments.
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