Marc Walker – Animal activists hope to free a troupe of monkeys forced to dance for tourists. They are dressed in costumes and made to do jigs, ride bicycles and smoke cigarettes.

The monkeys were captured while babies before being used to make money on the streets.

Jakarta Animal Aid Network and World Animal Protection (WAP) plan to rescue them from the port city of Cirebon, Indonesia, this autumn.

WAP said: "The monkeys were taken from the wild at only eight months old to be trained to dance for shoppers and tourists on the street.

"They watched their mothers get shot before being grabbed by their own tails and thrown into sacks by poachers."

It added: "Starved, hanged, beaten and chained by the neck, they have been forced to wear masks, dressed as dolls and made to stand for hours.

"When they aren't dancing, they are often kept in tiny single cages for prolonged periods of time."

Long-tailed macaques such as these are one of the most traded and exploited creatures in south-east Asia due to their intelligence and social skills.

WAP said: "This species has sadly become a target of the entertainment, pet and research industries. Years of exploitation have led to this species becoming endangered."

Rescuers hope to take the monkeys to a rescue centre and give them a new life in protected forests.

WAP's Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach said: "Macaques are wild animals - they are not born to dance. Wild animals have a right to live where they belong – in the wild."

Source: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/monkeys-forced-dress-up-smoke-3352540