Woburn Safari Park Fire Kills Monkeys, Steams Activists

A Woburn Safari Park fire in Britain claimed the lives of 13 monkeys, days after a fire at the London Zoo killed four meerkats and an aardvark, drawing widespread criticism from animal rights activists.

The safari park blaze near Bedfordshire tore through the monkey house, located in the African Forest drive-through enclosure of the park, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, The Guardian reported.

It took firefighters about two hours to douse the flames that were spotted by a member of the park’s security staff, BBC News reported.

A spokesman for the safari park said the animals could not be saved, adding that “all other animals within the jungle drive-through enclosure are being monitored, but early signs suggest that they have not been affected,” per The Guardian.

“The second fatal British zoo fire in two weeks shows that caging animals results in tragedy,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said on Twitter.

Thirteen patas monkeys have reportedly been killed in a fire at Woburn Safari Park today.
The second fatal British zoo fire in two weeks shows that caging animals results in tragedy.

— Go Vegan This January!💚petauk.org/veganpledge2018 (@PETAUK) January 2, 2018

The Captive Animals’ Protection Society echoed PETA’s sentiments.

“It’s just one of the risks of having animals trapped in cages,” said Nicola O’Brien, a campaign manager for the charity, per The Guardian.

“It must have been an absolutely horrific death for them. Obviously accidents do happen, but we do think it calls into question the whole point of why we place animals in captivity in the first place.”

PETA director Elisa Allen said both incidents proved that caging animals resulted in tragedy.

“No amount of time in a zoo can take away wild animals’ natural instincts to roam, search for food, care for their young, and, when a fire breaks out, flee – something that these monkeys were unable to do while locked in a cage,” she said, according to the Milton Keynes Citizen.

Woburn Safari Park’s managing director, Drew Mullin, said staff were devastated by the monkeys’ deaths.

“Behind the scenes, you've got animal keepers who know each and every one of those monkeys, they know them by name and every day when they come in, they go to see them,” he said, per BBC.

“This morning they didn't."

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