What Mauritius Isn’t Telling the World: Inside Its Hidden Monkey Massacre | Mansa Daby

Mauritius is often imagined as a paradise, an island of turquoise seas, lush hills, and spiritual calm. But behind the postcard perfection lies a disturbing undercurrent of screams, cages, and silence. Beyond its beaches and resorts, the island has become one of the world’s leading exporters of live primates for scientific research.

In this Topical episode, host Rajan Nazran, along with guest Mansa Daby, educator and founder of Monkey Massacre in Mauritius, unravels how an island famed for peace and spirituality has become a major player in the global primate trade. 

This episode investigates that hidden industry and the unsettling contradictions that sustain it. It examines how a country celebrated for peace, compassion, and cultural devotion has become complicit in an international trade built on suffering.

For decades, Mauritius has exported thousands of macaques to biomedical laboratories around the world. The trade remained largely invisible, with capture operations hidden deep within forests, breeding farms tucked away in remote regions, and the movement of animals shrouded in bureaucratic opacity. What began as small-scale breeding for research has grown into a lucrative export business, particularly after China and Cambodia imposed restrictions on their own primate trade. Since 2020, exports from Mauritius have tripled, with over 12,000 monkeys reportedly shipped overseas.

At the core of the controversy lies a profound moral paradox. Mauritius is a predominantly Hindu nation, home to countless temples and religious processions that revere Hanuman, the monkey god symbolizing strength and devotion. Yet, the same animal sacred in its mythology is trapped, confined, and exported for experiments that often end in agony and death. This contradiction exposes a wider crisis of conscience, a culture that publicly worships compassion while privately monetizing cruelty.

Behind the industry is a network of political and economic interests. Evidence has surfaced of financial connections between monkey-farming corporations, political campaigns, and even certain religious organizations. Donations from these farms have reportedly been used to fund electoral activities and community projects, creating a cycle of dependency and silence. As a result, voices calling for reform are often suppressed, and those who challenge the trade face intimidation or arrest.

The episode explores the broader societal implications of this entanglement, how governance, religion, and commerce intersect to normalise exploitation. The issue is not simply animal welfare; it is symptomatic of a deeper erosion of ethical leadership. Mauritius’ struggle reflects a global dilemma: how nations balance morality against money, image against integrity.

Social media has become the new battleground, exposing footage of captures, sparking outrage, and forcing the issue into public consciousness. Calls for reform focus on reinstating previous capture quotas, enforcing stricter export regulations, and creating a phased roadmap to end animal testing. Such measures would not only preserve biodiversity but also align national policy with the country’s cultural and spiritual ethos. The argument is simple yet urgent: ethical consistency cannot be selective.

What emerges from this discussion is a portrait of a nation at a crossroads, torn between its image as a tropical haven and its reality as a supplier in a global system of animal suffering. The episode challenges listeners to question not only Mauritius’ role but their own complicity in systems of hidden exploitation.

Mauritius’s story is not isolated. It is a mirror reflecting humanity’s broader dissonance between belief and behaviour, between what we preach and what we practice. The episode ends with a haunting truth: as the temple bells of devotion echo across the island each morning, the cries of trapped primates still pierce the night.

And in that sound lies a question every society must answer: What does progress mean when it comes at the cost of conscience?

*Disclaimer: The perspectives expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of our platform. This discussion is intended solely for knowledge-sharing and should not be interpreted as endorsement.

Produced by Global Indian Series for the Global Indian Network.

Script by Rajan Nazran
original idea: Rajan Nazran

Introduction music: (https://freesound.org/people/Timbre)