 Nature bill
Recently, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation consulted the public by means of a so-called internet consultation regarding a new, proposed law on nature. In this bill, the laws regarding flora & fauna, forests and nature are combined. The principles of these laws, however, cannot be found in the newly proposed bill. Stichting AAP has reacted to this because the proposed bill will affect our work with respect to animal welfare and exotic animals. If the text of this law is approved:
- The premise that animals have intrinsic worth independent of their use by or for humans will be deleted, and the legal individual care requirements for all animals will be reduced to minimal care for only endangered species and their habitats. Animals and their habitats will be declared fair game and will be unprotected unless the European legislation or interna-tional treaties force such legal protection.
- Economic and hunters’ interests will be more important than the protection of animals and their habitat.
- Exotic animals may be disrupted, captured or killed in great numbers without any compelling reason and without any clarification whether such disruption, capture or killing will lead to the results desired, nor will other possible solutions be investigated (such as rescue centers, return to their habitat after castration, etc.). This may all take place even if the animals are not causing damage, inconvenience or trouble. Moreover: provinces will be required to exterminate invasive exotic animals. Everyone will be allowed to kill invasive exotic animals at any time, by any means, in unlimited numbers. The welfare of these an-imals will suffer greatly as a result.
- Protected and endangered animals can be deliberately killed due to a lack of knowledge about them. Feral animals may also be deliberately killed, which in practice means that even animals that still have an owner may also be killed because from a distance one cannot determine whether an animal is actually wild or not.
- The protection of a great number of species will disappear: anyone may keep these animals in captivity, trade them and, in the case of exotic species, even kill them, in spite of the fact that most people are not veterinarians and are unskilled and un-knowledgeable. The ban on keeping primates and large cats will disappear; a person may then keep a primate in his home without having proper knowledge of the care of such an animal and no action can be taken against it. All of this will lead to much extra animal suffering.
- The trade in exotic animals will not be controlled (even though they are unfit to be kept as pets in homes and their welfare will be negatively affected, they can pose a threat to indigenous flora and fauna or cause damage and/or threaten animal and/or human health) and there will be no ban on the import of wild caught animals. This is just a waste of time and effort!
The Coalition of Animal Welfare Organisations in the Netherlands (AAP is a member of this organisation as well as IFAW and WSPA) also sent a reaction. This Coalition also signed the letter from the nature organisations, which originated in a monster coalition of more than 70 nature, environmental, landscape preservation and animal welfare organisations. Names such as Nature’s Monuments, State's Forestry Control, World Wildlife Fund, VOFF, the 12 Landscape preservation Groups, the Nature and Environmental Federations, Environmental Defense and also the Union of Forests Groups (approx. 1200 forest groups, among which are several private forest, nature and estate preservationists, but also town councils, water companies, investment companies and land management organisations). An historic oc-casion: this is the first time that environmental and animal welfare organisations have joined together in a shared protest action!
The indignation regarding the proposed bill is great: the internet consultation resulted in 5428 reactions and there was a great deal of media attention. The report from the Planning Office for the Living Environment is also very critical and has warned about irreparable damage if the proposed nature policy from Bleker is approved and carried out. As a result of the many reactions to the internet consultation, questions about the proposed bill have been raised in the 2nd Chamber.
In spite of all comments about the content, the nature bill has not been taken off the table. The large coalition of nature and animal welfare organisations will continue its discussions in January regarding the future of this joined lobbying.
Eline Lauret
Policy Manager Europe
 Reduction of abnormal behaviour in ex-laboratory chimpanzees
AAP provides a home for chimpanzees retired from biomedical research. During their time in the laboratory, the chimpanzees had developed several types of abnormal behaviour, in particular regurgitation and reingestion (R/R), rocking, and coprophagy. After arrival at AAP in 2006, the abnormal behaviour remained present and caused deleterious effects in a few individuals.
In April 2010, an intervention program was started to reduce or abolish this abnormal behaviour in a group of six chimpanzees with a group of seven as control group. The intervention consisted of three simultaneous methods:
- an increase of low-energy/high-fiber contents in the diet and predictability of the feeding moments
- an increase in provision of cognitive and behavioural enrichment items
- psychopharmacological treatment
Each of these methods has been separately used in other studies to reduce regurgitation in nonhuman primates, but none totally eliminated the abnormal behaviour. In this study, environmental enrichment, dietary alterations and psychopharmacological drugs were combined and started at the same time in five individuals with R/R, to ensure a long-term effect and to increase the potential for the total elimination of the behaviour.
Before and during the intervention both groups were observed daily and after analysis of the data, the effectiveness of the three-way intervention could be determined. Additionally, during the annual routine health screen, six months after start of the intervention, body weights and haematology values in blood and cortisol levels in hair samples were measured. Preliminary data indicated that R/R had decreased approximately tenfold. The effect on coprophagy and rocking was less consistent. Body weights of all individuals increased and blood parameters were within normal limits.
The intervention is still ongoing and was adjusted according to these preliminary results.
Hester van Bolhuis1, Godelieve Kranendonk 1,3, Eva Schippers1, Martin Brüne2, Berry Spruijt3
1 AAP, rescue centre for Exotic Animals, P.O. Box 50.313, 1305 AH, Almere, the Netherlands 2 Research Department of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Psychiatric Preventive Medicine, LWL-University Hospital, Bochum University, Germany 3 Behavioural Biology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
 Prize for veterinary research barbary macaques
Ieteke Verhoeven, veterinary in training at Ghent University, has, over the last few years, performed an important study of immunity problems and chronic stress in barbary macaques in captivity. For this purpose she chose two experimental groups at AAP (one in quarantine, the other in the Primate Hall) and two control groups (one also in the Primate Hall, the other in Apenheul).
With this study, which was also her Master thesis, she was awarded the Scientia Cordeque prize by the Belgian Veterinarian Association for Animal Protection for best essay in the animal welfare category. A summary of the research will be published in the Diergeneeskundige Vereniging voor Dierenbescherming’s journal and in EXPOVET 2011’s trade fair catalogue.
Ieteke Verhoeven’s study is not only of scientific importance, but it has presented clues which can help to diagnose and treat immunity problems and chronic stress in our barbary macaques at an early stage. This will positively affect their welfare.
 Successful introduction of laboratory monkeys
Spring 2011 AAP received six male rhesus macaques and one female from different laboratories, where they were used for brain research. For us the challenge to resocialize these monkeys was no greater than to resocialize other animals at AAP. We were somewhat surprised when, all of a sudden from all corners of science doubts were raised as to whether these monkeys would have a humane future.
For years rhesus macaques have been used for biomedical research. The legislation on using the animals is strict. For this reason, annually a lot of animals are ‘finished’ for work, and are put down as a result. The argument is two-fold: economically it is unattractive to provide the animals with a retirement, and rhesus macaques in particular are known for their aggressive behaviour. Especially the adult males are classified as hopeless cases; euthanasia seems to be the only and cheapest option. With that in mind, it is a sign of courage that some laboratories did want their animals to have a chance and housed them at AAP.
AAP’s standpoint is that every animal, however ‘difficult’, gets the chance at a better life. A social life, as group animals need conspecifics for their wellbeing. Firstly, the test animals that had already had social experiences were introduced to their own kind. The next step was to transfer three monkeys without or with limited social experience to our Rehabilitation Department. One of the animals, an adult male that had been housed solitary for a very long time and had a reputation for being ‘impossible’, received an enclosure next to the other two. After a few weeks, our ethologists saw the first hopeful signs of positive interaction. A few weeks later the moment was there to open the dividing hatch… And we observed how that ‘impossible’ male let himself carefully be groomed by the other two! Of course there are fights in the group every now and then and we are far from finished, but the signs are not more unfavourable than in many of our other monkey groups.
This first successful introduction of laboratory rhesus macaques is not only a breakthrough for the animals themselves, but also offers a perspective for all those test animals now threatened to being killed. Because we can now state, by experience, that even adult male animals with an a-social background, after a long stay at a laboratory, do have a real chance of a future with conspecifics at a rehabilitation centre such as AAP.
 Counting down till construction starts
After lengthy preparations the final design of the new buildings for our Quarantine and Primate rehabilitation department has been approved. The countdown has started. In April construction will commence.
The current Quarantine dates back from as far as 1995 and has 7 seperate units. Over the years we have added temporary facilities. These will be integrated into the new building. Its capacity will double, with a higher inflow of animals as a result. However, the flow to the rehabilitation departments is important too. Therefore the new Primate department will have 50% more capacity. An additional major effect is expected of the fitted compartmentalization; three seperate wings on the new building should create a more tranquile environment for the rehabilitation process, which is sensitive to disruption. In this way AAP hopes to increase the resocialization rate among primates, resulting in a shortened waiting list.
|
