There was no evidence of ”crispy, fried monkeys” at the fire-ravaged premises of the Animal and Reptile Park in Muldersdrift, an International Wildlife Welfare Organisation inspector said after visiting the private sanctuary on Monday.
”There was a fire … from my observations, no animal was injured … every animal is accounted for,” said the inspector, Cecilia Knox.
”I cannot see anywhere that any animal was in immediate danger [from the fire]. That is the bottom line,” she said.
A fire started by sparks from a bonfire on a neighbouring farm swept through the park on Saturday.
A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) senior officer, Phillip Roberts, claimed shortly afterwards that he was not only refused access to the park to help, but was told he would only be allowed to enter if he produced a court order and had a police escort.
In addition to claims that three moneys died in the fire, it was further alleged that singed fur was seen on a surviving monkey.
Knox, however, dismissed the allegations, saying she had found ”no animals injured, dead or dying” during her inspection on Monday afternoon.
”Every single one of them is here. Nothing awful happened here,” she said.
The blaze was limited to the centre of the U-shaped primates’ enclosure and had been doused by 20 workers using 10 hose pipes.
Adjoining land was soaked with water stored in drums around the property at this time of year to prevent the spread of flames in the event of fires. Park officials had also called the fire department, she said.
Knox said that she found the park’s 29 monkeys ”calm” and ”playing around like they normally play”.
At the time of the fire, they had made straight for their concrete sleeping quarters, where they were restrained behind the enclosures’ steel doors.
The fire, which raged for 15 to 20 minutes, had destroyed an area of about 50m by 30m approximately 10m from the sleeping quarters.
The park’s other animals — including lions, cougars, pumas, jackals, wolves, porcupines, warthogs and caracals — were ”quite a distance away” on the property.
About R10 000-worth of damage had been caused to shade cloth and barrier rails on the perimeter fence, she said.
Knox said she had been informed the park had made a policy decision not to work with the SPCA after a previous incident in which the association allegedly made an unfounded claim of abuse of a lion and arrived there with 21 police vehicles.
She said the park denied SPCA allegations that 10 rescued African lions it recently received from South America had been put to use for canned lion hunting.
All had been transferred to breeding schemes in the Free State to increase the genetic pool, as they were believed to be of a genetic strain that had died out in South Africa.
Knox said her report, which will be available on Tuesday, will be sent to national conservation authorities, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs — which is responsible for animal welfare — and ”any newspaper that wants it”. — Sapa