After being thrown into a fire, Lulu the baby baboon was kept alive, and her body parts were cut off one by one for fake medicine!

In Namibia, baboons are treated as vermin. They are shot by farmers, caught by humans and their body parts used for traditional medicine. Many baboon mothers are killed, leaving innocent babies orphaned and defenseless.

Baboons are clever, family-orientated creatures who have as much of a right to live on this planet as we do. Abusing and torturing them is barbaric and disgusting, but that is exactly what happens in Namibia.

“Boy” the baboon chewed off his leg to escape a trap… only to be trapped and tortured again!

Boy, a young baboon, was caught in a steel-jawed trap. He fought so hard for his life that he freed himself by chewing off one of his back legs. Can you imagine the agony the poor creature must have felt? It gets worse...

Boy got away and headed into the wilderness, but crippled and whimpering in excruciating pain, he was spotted, quickly recaptured and chained up. Our Namibian partner, the Co’Lu’Bi Sanctuary, was alerted by an outraged witness, and volunteers made the tough three-hour journey through a desert to investigate. When they reached Boy, he was still chained with the bone exposed from what was left of his leg. He was crying inconsolably for his mother.

Boy was rushed to a vet who had to amputate his leg just above the knee, then the Co’Lu’Bi Sanctuary took over his rehabilitation.

Another baboon, four-month-old Lulu, suffered an equally horrific ordeal. She had been captured and kept alive so she could be tortured in preparation of traditional Namibian ‘medicines’.

The ‘recipe’ saw her thrown into a fire for ritual purposes and retrieved alive as she screamed in pain. Then an ear, finger or toe was sliced off, to be used in a potion.

Lulu was then left to suffer until her body was needed again. The process would have been repeated until she died. Such cruelty boggles the mind.

Co’Lu’Bi saved Lulu, and she is now at the sanctuary, safe from further harm. But Lulu is just one of the scores of baboon babies flooding the shelter, saved from similar fates. This is just SO WRONG. Baboons live much like us, living in social groups, fiercely loving and protecting their young. But they are inquisitive, clever and can be mischievous thieves; they love dashing into houses and helping themselves to any food they can find. This gets them into trouble. In Namibia, the poor creatures are punished for the crime of being who they are.

The Co'Lu'Bi' Sanctuary is one of the only places providing safety and care for injured baby baboons in Namibia. But they cannot do it alone. We have promised to help raise funds to provide for their needs, but we can only do so with the help of animal lovers like you. Please, if you possibly can, make a donation today. Every little bit helps.

The Co’Lu’Bi Sanctuary is located in an extremely remote corner of Africa where supplies are expensive and difficult to get. But medicines, such as antibiotics, and supplies, such as bandages, are essential for the baboons to recover and have a chance of being returned to safe areas in the wild when they get better. It’s a long and difficult process, but the good people who run the sanctuary possess the rare and necessary skills to help integrate the babies back into wild troops.

Our partners have an amazing connection with the baboons at the sanctuary - one that we have never seen before! Every day, they walk with the baby baboons, supervising them as they forage in the wild. When the babies are strong enough to be released, they are handed over to a resident wild troop in the area to raise as their own.

The Co’Lu’Bi Sanctuary gets no help from government and struggles to meet all the baboons’ needs by eking out of its meager resources to the absolute limit. They have turned to us for help, and we promised to ask our supporters for assistance. So please, if you possibly can, donate to Network for Animals today so that we can give Lulu, Boy, and all the other rescued baboons, the vital care they need to heal as they prepare to return to the wild.

For the animals,

Brian and Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founders
Network for Animals

P.S. It is really true that baboons are mischievous. Lesley Barritt, one of our directors, walked into the kitchen of her home in Cape Town and found a huge male baboon sitting on the table eating a banana. When she appeared, he looked at her quizzically, jumped off the table, grabbed a loaf of bread and saluted her with it as he went out the door on his way back to Table Mountain. How could anyone hurt creatures capable of the humor of saluting you with a bread loaf? Please donate today so we can work to stop baboons from being tortured in Namibia.