In today’s no doubt biggest what-the-actual-fuck-is-going-on moment, video footage has emerged on social channels of a stunt monkey that sort of looks like it’s trying to kidnap a child in the streets of Indonesia.
Stunt monkeys are certainly not a new thing in South East Asia, often sent into busy streets and areas – sometimes even on little bikes/scooters – to perform tricks and ‘entertain’. Often it’s known as Topeng Monyet, something that’s been around for years and years, it’s slowly declining but still very prevalent.
In this particular video (see below), it looks as if this poor monkey has been trained to grab a child. Often these monkeys have a string or rope tied to them, that a ‘trainer’ is pulling back on – you can vaguely make it out in this case. Hence why the monkey in this video can pull the little toddler pretty far, pretty easily.
So this monkey pulled up in a Monkey Benz to kidnap a child!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/AJisxpGMkC
— 🇳🇬 OMO NAIJA 👑 (@Cele__Audu) May 5, 2020
Honestly the story here for me, is the whole mistreatment of animals in the wider Asia region – it’s so sad, and declining or not, still happening. And you can no doubt tell that they’ve been trained to perform these stunts.
There have been some responses to the video, mainly saying that monkeys being used to kidnap children for trafficking never happens – and that it’d be borderline impossible to actually do.
4. There have been zero reports of kids being kidnapped by traffickers using monkeys. Ever.
5. In the video, you can see the monkey is on a leash. The handler tries to pull the monkey, accidentally dragging the kid in the process.— franz, sadly not a crab (@franzanth) May 4, 2020
But, plenty are calling bullshit and saying that the video is simply a reminder of the way monkeys are used for criminal acts.
4. There have been zero reports of kids being kidnapped by traffickers using monkeys. Ever.
5. In the video, you can see the monkey is on a leash. The handler tries to pull the monkey, accidentally dragging the kid in the process.— franz, sadly not a crab (@franzanth) May 4, 2020
For those who are wondering what’s going on, in Indonesia child sex traffickers train monkeys to do exactly what your viewing. As you can see the leash on the monkey looking frantic to work https://t.co/bPynMDpLka
— Angelica Fratis II (@fratis_first) May 4, 2020
Either way it’s damn awful look, and I honestly hope some repercussions come into effect after this video does the rounds. Not holding my breath though.