Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
IT’S not a good start to a singing competition to be told the group you’re in Bournemouth to support has so many coughs, their warm-up room sounds like an ancient TB ward. Like many occasions in life, in a competition, you only have a limited time to make a good impression.
As visitors pass through a rehoming centre, animals have only a short time to make a good impression on a potential owner.
Just like Whitney Houston’s song, “One moment in time” (which was sung at the competition), sometimes when we have an opportunity we have to seize it.
Yani was in top form when I met her at the National Animal Welfare Trust (NAWT) rehoming centre and together we seized the opportunity to become acquainted. She’s a beautiful older girl who needs a quiet home. If this could be with you, Yani is waiting at the NAWT centre, Tylers Way, Watford.
NAWT have a summer picnic with musical performances this Saturday June 15 (12pm-3pm), so you could meet her then. More details from nawt.org.uk.
While at Bournemouth I seized the opportunity to pay a visit to the nearby famous ape rescue centre, Monkey World.
Readers will remember Dr Alison Cronin, the director of this amazing sanctuary, gave a talk at the Ealing Animal Charities Fair last March and, I’m pleased to say, Alison and her team are attending the Fair again next March.
It’s clear that many of the animals at the centre are there because Alison has seized a brief window of opportunity to rescue them from a lifetime of misery either as a photographer’s prop, circus animal or victim of the primate pet trade (a trade criticised by many including the recent Times editorial on Friday, May 31).
There was lots going on at the centre but I particularly wanted to see the capuchin monkeys.
In 2008, Monkey World rescued 88 capuchins from a Chilean research laboratory where some of them had lived for 20 years in small, individual cages with mesh floors.
When asked to take the monkeys, Alison had to make the decision whether to undertake Monkey World’s biggest rescue ever and accept all the monkeys or leave some behind.
She seized the moment, believed they could do it and took them all. One of the cages where the capuchins previously lived is on display and provides a stark contrast to the magnificent, natural environment in which they live now.
If you want a fantastic day out, Monkey World is at Longthorns, Dorset.