Collection at Meeting

Sorry for the long silence. I had to take a little break from everything but I am back and we are making headway. Firstly another big thank you to Reading Quaker Meeting for inviting me to do a collection and for their generous donations. We made £170 which is another great boost towards the Muna play. 

Secondly an appeal for support for our partner BMCRif who are lacking funding and need money to continue their important work protecting Barbary macaques in Morocco. They have made some real progress in persuading local peoples to not kill or sell the monkeys in the area and it would be a real shame if they are unable to continue due to lack of funds.

 

Updates soon

Hooray for the play

The play went really well last week and we made just over another £100 for the trip to Morocco, looks like we might actually be able to afford it! Hooray. Thanks to everyone involved and photos to follow.

Monkey Hugs

A week to go

Hello monkey-people,

We are about to do our Roloway show, now named Save Your Last Rolo-way, thank you Kate Collard for that! We will be at Beale Park from the 10th-13th of April doing two shows a day at 11.30 and 3.30 every day and activities all day and hopefully introducing a new set of activities for this run: T-shirt colouring.

So I am a busy bee trying to get things in place in time for the actors turning up on the 7th for rehearsals. I am really excited to be working with new actors and looking forward to seeing what the new blood brings to the show.

Hope to see some people at Beale Park

Monkey hugs

Naughty Nutella

Ferrero the company that makes Nutella on their FAQs does a bit of written chicanery around whether they use sustainable palm oil. Below is the quote from their site:

Does Ferrero support responsible palm oil use?
Yes. As a member of the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), Ferrero only uses palm oil which is extracted from controlled plantations in Malaysia.

You see here they have said they are members of the RSPO (which plenty of companies are). Being a member only means you say that you support the concept of sustainable palm oil. It requires no commitment from the members in the form of actually using sustainable palm oil. Some members do, some members don’t. This is often referred to as green-washing. They have not stated that they use RSPO certified palm oil and it has been suggested that even when plantations are certified they may not be upholding the best environmental standards.

The phrase ‘controlled plantations’ is vague enough that it sounds like it means something when it actually has no defined meaning.

So my thoughts are ‘naughty Nutella’

PSGB Conservation Working Party Grant

Hoorah and huzzah! MASC has just won the prestigious Primate Society of Great Britain Conservation Working Party grant for the new project Muna the Monkey. This money will go a long way to producing the show and and some is earmarked for the trip to Morocco.

Thank you PSGB we hope to be worthy of your support

Save Your Last Rolo-way

Hello monkeys!

We are going to be performing the Roloway show at Beale Park in the Beale Centre from the 10th-13th of April with a new cast and a new activity! The activity will be t-shirt colouring; wear your artwork and promote saving the monkeys with your shopping basket.

Introducing:

Laura Fisher – Our new Roloway and Laura will also be playing Muna the Monkey in the new piece called Muna the Monkey and coming to Morocco with us. Although she will be trying to communicate with the audience without words she is well up to the task of monkeying around! She will be staying with us as a warm-up to being in Morocco and only having each other that speak English.

Bonita James – Our new Scientist 1, Jones and Roloway 2. I am looking forward to working with someone who seems as passionate as I do about using theatre for change for the good. She did ‘Crocky wock the Crocodile‘ in the audition and genuinely scared us. She made some lovely primate sounds in the audition that I am hoping to dust off for the show too.

Gavin Moore – Our new Local Man. He is a local boy, I actually bumped into him after a Monkey Monday lecture at Oxford Brookes. He is full of energy and will be great for getting the kids really involved. He played Buttons in panto last Christmas so hopefully he is still in the mood for a bit of ‘it’s behind you!’ and can get everyone to boo the Boss and his plans to cut down the rainforest.

Ben Lawson – Who is not new to MASC (being a trustee and having both been in the Roloway play before and directing it) but new to the role of the Westerner, Scientist 2 and the Boss (boo hiss).

Banning pet primates in the UK

A new bill has been presented to the House of Commons hoping to prohibit the keeping of primates as pets in the UK. Please write to your MP to request their support. I have included the text I used, please feel free to edit it as you see fit. Wild Futures are promoting this so maybe contact them to tell them you have written.

Find your MP

Dear ,

There are approximately 5,000 privately kept primates in England , Scotland and Wales today. Due to shortcomings in
existing legislation, the authorities are unaware of the locations of or conditions in which the majority of these primates are kept.
· There is mounting evidence that the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-Human Primates
has failed to protect many privately kept primates since its introduction in 2010.
· The Animal Welfare Act 2006 cannot be enforced unless the authorities know where and how privately kept primates are being kept. Furthermore, genuine specialist
knowledge is required in order to ensure that primates’ needs are being met. Non-specialist veterinarians have repeatedly given poor advice concerning pet primates, resulting in lasting damage to many privately kept individuals.
· Without assessment by genuine specialists, pet primates can and regularly do fall through the cracks. In these times of financial austerity, it would be surprising to see enforcing authorities move toward employing primate specialists in order to ensure that the needs of pet
primates are being met!
· Seventy-nine percent of the British public does not believe that monkeys should be kept as pets[1], and the government has as much as admitted that they are unsuitable to be kept by anyone but “specialist keepers”
· The simplest and most economical solution to these problems is to introduce a total ban on the keeping of primates as pets. In January 2012 Member of Parliament for South East Cornwall Sheryll Murray presented the Keeping of Primates as Pets (Prohibition) Bill 2010-12 to the House of Commons. This Bill is due a second hearing soon. I would like to ask you as my representative to support this Bill as the only fair, economical and realistic solution to pet primate ownership and its devastating effects on individuals and in some cases wild populations.
· All MPs are welcome and encouraged to visit the Wild Futures’ Monkey Sanctuary, meet the monkeys we have rescued from the UK pet trade and learn about their stories. All they have to do is contact campaigns to arrange a visit!

Yours sincerely,

 

 

[1]http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/492/Primates-As-Pets.aspx

 

 

Open people’s eyes to animal cruelty

Hello monkeys far and wide,

I have just seen a video of a baby macaque on a pig’s back. The baby monkey is likely to be very scared and is too young to be without its mother. It is being treated as an object of entertainment when it is really a living animal which is scared and alone. To add to the content of the video there are comments on it that say how much the viewers want a pet monkey (as well as others saying that anyone who dislikes the clip hates animals and comedy). After commenting on the video with why it was animal abuse I had a lovely comment back telling me that the monkey was loving it! I know that there are hundreds if not thousands of these videos and we cannot help to influence them all but it is my aim to increase the number of dislikes, reports of animal abuse and comments explaining what it is these ‘animal-lovers’ are actually watching.

I don’t hope to have the video removed, partly because it silences the discussion, partly because it makes us out to be the bad guys and the video is around enough that people already have copies etc. It is out there now, the mission is to change how it is seen rather than to delete it.

So please if you have a second can you please click on the link and dislike, comment or report animal abuse. The number of dislikes is 841 (already more than when I watched it half an hour ago) I would like to get to 1,000 with more measured comments on there as well.

If you do comment, prepare for abusive messages back. Words may sting but ignorance is destroying the lives of so many.

Loss of data, inspiration and grant applications

There has been a long gap since my last post, partly because I have been incredibly busy, with work and MASC activities and partly because my laptop and back-up hard drive died at the same time and I thought I had very few of my MASC files and would have to start again! Thankfully I have got most of it back but have bought another back-up and now need a new hard drive for my laptop.

So what has happened? We did Monkey Biscuits at Beale Park and we raised some money, not as much as last time but the weather was much colder and there were fewer people in the Park in general. We have held auditions and cast for the Roloway play and the new macaque piece.

I have been inspired by the Gruffalo and other things as to how to make the set for our next piece. I am hoping to make a mock up soon and be able to put photos up on here very soon. I have also been taken by a story written by Ben (another trustee) about a little character called Yogle. I have other things to focus on first but once the wildlife parks are closed for the winter and we are back from Morocco I will be developing a new children’s theatre piece for MLC (our sister company) and giving that a go.

Also I have written what feels like 10 or 20 grant applications but I think it is more like 5!

So busy and now productive. Exciting times. I am also getting my head around some fundraising activities

Monkey hugs

Busy but exhilarating fortnight

We have had two very busy weeks. We first did monkey biscuits at Beale Park and made some money towards Morocco! We have also been holding auditions for which we are having our final deliberations. So busy and not over yet.

Hope everyone is having a lovely monkey time

Monkey hugs