BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE uniqueness of the people living on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis lies in their creative nature where they can start a business from pretty much anything.
And during the favourable Tourism season, we see unique one of a kind Tour Guides, Hair Braiders, Massage and Monkey Vendors.
However, this article is aimed at addressing Monkey Vendors, what they do and the intricacies in plying their trade.
The lone species of monkeys in the Federation is the Green Vervet and the population is estimated to be over 30 000.
About six Monkey Vendors stood several feet away from the Port Zante Arrival Hall with their baby monkeys seeking business from the arriving tourists.
SKNVibes sought to speak with some of the vendors about this unique business but found it difficult as they were busily hustling around going from one tourist to another, trying to see who was interested in taking a photograph with their monkeys.
“I’m on my hustle right now…can’t talk,” said one person whose eyes seemed to scan the Arrival Hall for potential customers.
Finally, Kelvin Jones had two minutes to spare. He said he had been a Monkey Vendor for eight years and that he would buy the babies from ‘Monkey Hunters’ of the Phillips area for about EC$200 each.
Jones said after the purchase he would take the monkeys to a veterinarian to have them inspected and subsequently trained.
He said that he prefers the baby monkeys because they are calmer and easier to train.
“So we get them like when they’re a month old and we train them to sit on your head, sit on your shoulder and on your hand…just to be calm so the picture can be taken,” he said.
It is indeed a hustle and Jones said it is good when the ships are in.
“The tourists love it! Sometimes you have them run come to the monkeys,” he said.
When his monkeys are grown, Jones said he would leave them at home because they would be unable to return to the wild.
The monkeys’ diet comprises apples, bananas, grapes and they also eat a lot of bread and pastries.
“So we just leave them at home or around the yard, because they wouldn’t go anywhere…they already adapt to that area,” he said.
Jones said “no way” When asked if he eats them, Jones hurriedly answered, “No way!”, adding that he leaves them to procreate.
According to Jones, they are licenced vendors and the licences are sanctioned by the Tourism Authority.
Another vendor known as Glenn said that he has been in the business for 13 years and enjoys meeting people from all around the world when they visit St. Kitts.
“You’d meet some who were nice and some not so nice. You just have to go along with it because there is no job in my entire life that pays me as good as this one,” he said.
Glenn said he makes about US$400 on a really good day.
He also buys his monkeys from hunters and pays up to US$150 per animal.
He said that the cost to take one of them to the veterinarian is about EC$75.
Glenn also had a four-year-old Monkey along with a small one that day.
He said that he had been using the adult monkey since it was a baby, so it is still well trained and calm.
“When you get the baby and you train them, when they get big they wouldn’t be attacking. I use them from two months to five years. When they are five years old I will just leave them alone and let them live their life.”
However, not all is picture perfect at their main location of work (Port Zante), as at times there are grievances between them and taxi operators.
One taxi operator seemed annoyed with the fact that the Monkey Vendors were allowed to be so close to the Arrival Hall.
“They used to be down by the braids plaiting by the Pelican Mall, which is more reasonable. Over here, taxi men are already fighting…now we have to compete with them too.
“Why you should have them who ain’t paying no business licence and insurance for a vehicle? When they whisper to the tourists about the price for the photographs and the tourists don’t hear what they say, when time to pay the tourists get very frustrated in respect of the prices. When they have to pay like 20, 30 or 40 dollars for photographs it’s not easy on them, and to see that they can go round the whole island for $20 or $25 per person and then they paying more than that for photo which they don’t know the cost until the photo done take. And so because of that they don’t do any tour of the island,” he said.
The seasoned taxi operator claimed that the Monkey Vendors would lure the tourists’ children to take pictures with the monkeys most of the time without their parents consent, and after the photographs are taken only then would inform the parent of the price.
He also claimed that they would place the monkeys on the tourists and “whisper” the price to them, and that the tourists normally do not hear the price before the photograph is taken.
“They whisper the price to the tourists because they know nobody want to pay 10 dollars for two pictures just so easily. And if they do, then that’s fine; it’s their right, but they do not tell them at first hand. So it’s real bad around here. They need some order around here, the government is the problem in respect to that…things are out of order.”
On the other hand, Jones said that the tourists are always informed of the cost of the photographs before they are taken and that sometimes the tourists do not understand because they speak a different language.
The cost to take a photograph with the monkeys range from two pictures for US$10, and some vendors charge the same price for three pictures.
The tourists use their own cameras or camera phones to take the pictures.
Another Monkey Vendor, who chose to remain nameless, said he started in 2011 and spoke of the issue between them and the taxi operators.
“When we take the pictures and the tourists coming with the money, they would tell us their father will pay but the taxi men who are hired by the same tourist will tell them that they can take them to the rain forest and see monkeys.
“When the tourists come off the ships they want to take the picture when they see the monkeys. If they don’t, it’s because they are advised by the taxi men. The same tourist will come back in the afternoon to you and still want their photograph taken because they didn’t see the monkey in the rain forest.
“The taxi men will also tell them about Shipwreck because there are monkeys and mongoose over there. But you cannot hold them because they are in the wild. You can feed them and you can’t hold them. Here, you can hold them. I would tell them that they can see the monkeys over Shipwrecked but cannot hold them because they are wild,” he said.
He explained that he has a large cage in his home, about six feet tall, where he keeps the monkeys as pets even after they would have reached a matured age.
Speaking with Chief Veterinary Officer at the Department of Agriculture, Tracey Challenger, she told this publication that once the business is done in a regulated way they have no issue with it.
She said that it is a livelihood for the vendors and a ‘win/win’ situation for all as monkeys are considered pests to farmers but pets to tourists and a source of income to vendors.
“We were in consultation with the Tourism Department because they received some complaints about the ill-treatment of the monkeys by some of the vendors. And what we decided to do was to have meetings with the vendors and with the Ministry (Tourism), and we came up with a plan to make it more controlled,” she said.
Challenger said that they sought to improve or to gain the confidence of the public that it was okay for the men to conduct business with the monkeys.
“As long as it’s done in a regulated way, we recommended that or insisted that before any monkeys are used they would have to be checked out by us. The checks are done every three months.
“We spoke to them about the way they handled the monkeys, the way they treat the monkeys and to do so in a humane manner. So, basically, training was one of the recommendations that was our focus. They have had training from the Agriculture end in terms of humane treatment,” she said.
In terms of when the monkeys are grown, Challenger said that they could not be released back into the wild.
“They would not be accepted by the troops. The troops will not accept them, so they will practically be on their own, or they might be attacked. So in that case we encourage them to give them up to the research facilities.”
Tourism Department’s Product, Standards and Cruise Ship Manager, Melnecia Marshall said that the Monkey Vendors currently do not have permits to operate.
“But we have identified eight vendors who have approached the St. Kitts Tourism Authority and told us they were interested in providing primary petting service to the visitors.
Marshall said the vendors approached them about two years ago and they instructed them to go to the Agriculture Department to get their monkeys examined.
She said that the vendors underwent some Customer Service Training with the Authority and also a St. Kitts Ambassador Programme.
“That is the first two stages. The next stage is to give them a permit, which gives them permission to operate on Port Zante. We cannot certify them as Primary Petting Vendors, as we do not have the capacity to do so. That would mean we would have to go into training in terms of animal behavior, etc.
“We need to be sure that the monkeys that are checked by the Agriculture Department are on Port Zante on a daily basis. So one of the things that is a challenge with the system is the tagging of the monkey itself.”
The Product, Standards and Cruise Ship Manager said that they were unable to provide them with permits, because they are unable to safely tag each monkey to make sure that the primate that was checked by the Agriculture Department is what is being used at Port Zante.
“We’re in dialogue with the Department. So we think that hopefully soon we will be able to tag them. We’ve had a number of ideas including piercing the ear, but the monkeys are very touchy and don’t like things on their bodies…they automatically pull them off.
“Our major concern is to make sure the visitors have a pleasant experience. And so while we may want to facilitate our local people in terms of them earning a living by providing unique service to the visitor, we would actually want to ensure as well that the visitor experience is very important, so nothing that they do should be to the detriment of the experience of our visitors,” she said.
According to an American animal rights organisation called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), "Most tourists have no idea that hunters catch mother monkeys in snares or shoot them dead—with their babies still clinging to them—and sell the terrified babies for profit, leaving the babies with extreme psychological trauma that affects them for the rest of their lives.
"In captivity, these intelligent, highly social animals are denied the chance to climb trees, spend time with other monkeys, forage for food, raise young, or express any other natural behavior. When they grow too large or too mature to control, many of them are kept as breeding machines—so that this cycle of abuse can continue—or sent to laboratories where they are caged, poisoned, infected, cut into, and killed. No kind person should support this abusive industry."
In the 17th century, during the early days of European settlement in St. Kitts, the French had imported a few Green Vervet monkeys from Africa as pets, but in 1713 when the British gained control of the island under the Peace of Utrecht, the monkeys were turned loose.
The climatic condition, miles of untamed rainforest and bountiful vegetation agreed with the primates so much so that today their population is estimated to be 30 thousand between St. Kitts and Nevis.
In the past, the monkeys used to feed on sugar cane, mangoes and other fruits grown close to the mountainside in St. Kitts, but following the closure of the sugar industry in 2005, they are now undermining the progress being made towards food security.
Because of not having prehensile tails, the monkeys are often seen on the ground, scampering across lawns and climbing trees in populated areas on both islands foraging for food.
Farmlands and kitchen gardens are now their targets. And while some farmers had used dogs to protect their crops from being ravished by the furry creatures, this measure had only been successful for short periods, because the monkeys had befriend them and continued their pillage.
Addressing the threat to farmers, a press release from the Communications Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister on January 13, 2012 stated that the government said while it is concerned about the threat by monkeys to farming and animal rights, the green monkey population is a unique resource to biomedical research and drug development.
“Preserving the resource, making it more available to the international research community through sustainable management and in compliance with international regulations such as CITES, and supporting the existing primate research facilities on the island are priorities for the government of St. Kitts and Nevis while remaining sensitive to the impact of monkeys as pests to crop farmers and to concerns about animal rights,” the release quoted Minister of Information, Sen., the Hon. Nigel Carty as saying in the Post Cabinet Brief.
It further stated, “The monkeys, while presenting a threat to the development of crop farming, are used for biomedical research at two facilities on the island,” said Minister Carty, who disclosed that a recent survey of the monkey population estimates that there are about 18,000 monkeys in St. Kitts although it is popularly believed that the population is much larger. The monkeys, while presenting a threat to the development of crop farming, are used for biomedical research at two facilities on the island,” said Minister Carty.
