Refuge for smuggled monkeys in Chile

Santiago - Elba Munoz was working as a midwife when she took in her first monkey in 1994. Then she took in another and another, and now her shelter for illegally smuggled primates in Chile has 160 inhabitants.

Munoz says that one of the goals of the Centre for the Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates is to stop trafficking of the animals.

It provides a place for Chile's Agriculture and Livestock Service to send primates that have been brought into the country illegally and are often mistreated.

"Before we existed, most monkeys stayed with the offenders," said Munoz, who is director of the centre located in Penaflor just outside the capital of Santiago.

Many primates are brought to the centre hairless and in chains. Others arrive blind, mutilated or with diseases, according to the centre’s website.

Munoz said the centre now houses 12 different species.

"This happened little by little. First, one monkey arrived, then another monkey," she said. "Slowly the monkeys began to arrive until we ended up like we are now, the biggest centre in South America."