Several Baboons Escaped A Sydney Hospital
Many questions are currently unanswered, such as 'what?', 'why?' and 'are the baboons going to be okay?'.
Several baboons were in the grounds of Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital Tuesday afternoon after escaping a research facility.
The report first came in via Ben Fordham on 2GB, with listeners calling in to mention they just saw loose baboons.
One call-in says there were ‘three’ baboons in the RPA car-park — “even with red bottoms”.
This is one for all the haters who don’t believe in our baboon scoop… pic.twitter.com/PCI1hCGcPg #BaboonWatch
— Ben Fordham (@BenFordham) February 25, 2020
Twitter user @helviusi shared video of three baboons running in response to a Nine News callout for footage.
Video owned by micheal Tran pic.twitter.com/NYJinAM4nX
— Marc Calvy (@helviusi) February 25, 2020
NSW Police has since confirmed to 10Daily‘s Josh Butler that animal handlers are on the ground, with a later media statement clarifying they had been contained within an hour of the police first being notified.
“Just before 5.30pm, officers from Inner West Police Area Command were called to a carpark on Missenden Road and Lucas Street, Camperdown, after reports three baboons escaped while being transported,” it reads.
“They are currently contained, and police are working with experts to safely return them to their facility.”
As per the Daily Telegraph, a ‘colony’ of baboons are kept at the RPA’s research facility for experiments — a controversial practice which has been criticised by Humane Research Australia and other animal rights groups.
Twitter, of course, has absolutely lost its mind at the news.
UPDATE: The baboons in question were a 15-year-old male and two younger females: Sydney Morning Herald reports the male was on way to a vasectomy procedure, with the two females accompanying to keep him calm.
While there are baboons housed at a research facility at the RPA, where they are used for studies and experiments, a controversial practice which has been criticised by Humane Research Australia and other animal rights groups, these three baboons are from a research colony in Wallacia.
There, they breed for research programs — the vasectomy was ordered so the male could retire from breeding, and live in the colony.
Feature image byCC BY-SA 3.0.