Putting domestic cats into a monkey enclosure to kill the rats backfires

Kunming Zoo is located in the Yunnan Province of China. In that zoo they have a monkey enclosure. And in the monkey enclosure there were rats which migrated to the enclosure after a food storage issue.

Because hundreds of rats got into the enclosure, the zookeepers decided to introduce domestic cats into the enclosure to get rid of the rats. In all 10 cats ended up in the enclosure.

Woman tries to jump into monkey enclose to save the cats placed in it to clear the rats but the monkey's molested the cats. Image by MikeB based on images from AsiaWire

A problem developed in that the monkeys started to abuse the cats with apparently some mounting the cats for sex and others pulling out whiskers.

A visitor to the zoo became distressed at what she saw and decided to jump into the enclosure to save the cats from abuse.

There is a picture on the Internet of a woman being grabbed as she tries to jump into the enclosure.

The upshot is that the cats were removed from the enclosure. The woman is okay and the cats are been removed except for 2 to deal with any remaining rodents.

Apparently there are no issues concerning cats and monkeys. They get on well we are told at the moment.

The zoo management "expressed their thanks to the public for their worries about the animal's welfare and emphasised their commitment to looking back on the things they did wrong and will consider public opinions." The quote comes from the Daily Star.

It appears that the remaining two cats will be rehoused in safer places by the China Small Animal Protection Association.

That's the story. The headline is rather more dramatic and it states, "Woman jumps in monkey enclosure to save cats being molested and mounted by animals".

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.