Monkeys have gone on a canine killing spree in India and are even reported
as targeting young children as they walked to and from school.
Now, what is the cause of this?
Well, it has to do with langur monkeys and here's what we know so far.
Villagers reported a series of monkey attacks that killed 250 puppies in
the Beed district of the indian state of Maharashtra, officials or locals believe
that the killings came as revenge after dogs killed an infant monkey recently.
The langur monkeys have been catching puppies, so
brutal dropping them to their deaths from considerable heights,
such as from the tops of trees and buildings.
So this story is really an emotional roller coaster because you begin by seeing
images of these langur monkeys and let's just keep it real, they're real cute.
And then you hear about their viciousness toward
these defenseless puppies as many as 250 of them.
And I mean I can't stand for that.
But we don't really know why they're targeting the puppies, right?
This is just a theory that one of their own was harmed by a dog and
this is them retaliating against it.
Some are actually pushing back against that theory.
I'll get to that in just a second.
But the attacks have created considerable panic among locals
who reportedly contacted wildlife officials after the monkeys started
trying to grab young children on their way to school.
So why are they targeting Children as well?
Why?
>> Because this is a turf war and they that's their corner and
you can't mess with it.
All right.
Look, almost everyone in this story is guilty except one scientist.
So first off they're not human, they're not doing it for revenge, right?
Or whatever version of revenge this is, is in their genes, not in our genes.
All we ever do is project our feelings onto animals.
And then we're like, how could they be so cruel and drop the puppies from the trees?
Yeah, from a human perspective, that's incredibly cruel.
From a monkey perspective, I don't know, maybe it's dodgeball right.
Like, and so you can't look I I know we're so
funny because we're like, no, you can't say that.
What are we being mean to the monkeys or the dogs, like?
No, we as humans care deeply about those puppies and we don't want them dropped,
but the monkeys are not evil for doing it, they're monkeys.
>> No, I mean, look, I hear what you're saying there, but like the dodgeball,
you know, imagery was unnecessary.
I think you went you went a little too far in my opinion.
Okay.
I think you should apologize to the audience and to me.
>> I'm not going to, no.
>> All right, okay, fine.
What a bad guy.
Alright.
Nonetheless, let's talk about what the experts are saying.
Okay, because there is an expert who agrees with your take on this.
So she's with the humane society international India and
she says we often tend to associate 'human' sentiments to any animal.
We call it revenge or call them 'angry' or
'aggressive' without truly understanding the depth of it or
the ramifications of associating anthropomorphic traits to animals.
But she starts to lose me in this next statement because obviously if
you have these killer monkeys coming after puppies and children,
you've got to do something to keep puppies and children safe, Right?
But this individual with the humane society disagrees.
What is unfair is that without further investigation into the matter,
the authorities have gone ahead and begun capturing the primates involved, which is
a welfare concern and only contributes to increasing conflict with primates.
By the way, they're not capturing the monkeys and then euthanizing them.
They're capturing the monkeys and releasing them in the wild, right
in an environment where they no longer pose a threat to the puppies and children.
>> Yeah, this is a roller coaster ride, you're right because when she did
the statement about how science actually works and don't project your feelings.
And I was like yes, finally someone that makes sense, right?
And my son, this is a fun story.
He's 11 years old.
And the other day we were in a boat in San Diego and
a hawk had picked up a fish and I said and he was flying above us.
I'm like my God, that's so cool.
He noticed. And so I said man,
if I was him I'd feel so nervous about dropping him and Pro turns to me and says.
>> About dropping the fish?
>> Yeah about dropping the fish.
He goes Baba it's a hawk it doesn't have human D.
N. A.
It probably doesn't get nervous.
And I was like.
>> Wow, look at that.
>> I was like that.
So as I was psyched about that about her statement saying the correct thing right?
Then she turns around and says you can't do this to the poor monkeys.
That's unfair.
I'm like wait a minute.
You're projecting human sense of fair and unfair onto the monkeys and the puppies.
>> Got her, got her.
>> Okay, totally.
Right.
So that ruins your point entirely.
And you have to understand something.
The puppy and the monkeys are in a sense defending their genetic instincts kick in
and they are defending their own when they attacked the puppies and
they attacked them in a monkey way.
Right? In fact that specific you know
species of monkey.
Other monkeys will react differently right?
But we're also monkeys.
And when they come after our kids or our puppies we get pissed and
we have every right to be pissed because we have human D.N.A.
>> Are you kidding me?
If anything comes from my dog, human, monkey whatever I'm coming for
them you don't mess with Charlie, okay.
>> She has no idea, this this expert, on how how much worse it
could be if Casper was in charge of the langur monkeys.
>> Yeah what to do with the langur monkeys.
Especially if my my dog was dealing with that threat.
But nonetheless I mean look but that's the other thing, like the monkeys are so
cute but they're monkeys and they also have other redeeming qualities, right?
So I found this video is put together by the BBC and
like the love that they have for their own.
And even even if it's not one of their actual babies, right,
one of their baby monkeys doesn't matter.
They're like a tribe that protects every single one of them and
any threat needs to be eliminated.
So let's take a quick look at this video.
>> Often an injured baby is a cause for concern.
Mhm.
And this langur seems to believe she's died
then something extraordinary happened.
[MUSIC]
The monkeys gather round the motionless spy creature as if it is a real baby.
[MUSIC]
They react just as they do when their own babies die.
>> All right, you guys are gonna think I'm ridiculous.
That was a doll, it wasn't a real, makes me emotional.
>> Yeah, you're tearing up, this, roller coaster, we, we promised roller coaster,
we have roller coasters.
>> It's just beautiful.
>> You know what?
I changed my idea on the langur monkeys, Let him go, let him go.
>> Imagine if we valued human life as much as langur monkeys value langur life.
>> Langur life, okay.
>> It's beautiful.
>> Look, I want to live the hashtag langur life.
[LAUGH] Okay, so guys, we are monkeys were a different species of monkey.
So when I saw the langurs, that's a lot of how we react right?
Both in terms of, my God we're so sad.
>> Is it how we react?
>> Actually yeah maybe they're slightly better than us.
But in terms of us being sad when our loved ones die.
Okay In their case, so they may be their progressive, they care for someone they
didn't know because it actually obviously it wasn't one of their own.
It was a doll but they were still that emotional about it.
But they also have the same vengeance that we do.
So their genes probably are pretty similar to ours and
that's where they went after the puppies.
>> I just wish they hadn't gone after the puppies because I just these
langur monkeys really resonate with me like they're cute like me but
they're also fighters and pretty vicious when they want to be, like me.
Like I like the monkeys but just stay away from the pups.
Okay, stay away from the pups.
>> We could rename them Casper monkeys.
There was a little golden kid there I guess.
Anyways guys, bottom line on all this is no they got to remove the monkeys.
Were not gonna, no matter how cute they are or how much they care for their own.
We can't have them snatching our babies or puppies.
That's crazy with the best care you can move them to a wildlife facility but
you can't have them running around in the streets