The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["Josh Greenman" <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/16666/index.html

Monkeys Say 'Dayenu!'
It's that time of year again at the zoo: when the monkeys get fat and
lazy thanks to Orthodox Jews.

By Carol Vinzant

Security has been tight this week at the Central Park Zoo, with ticket
takers, staff, and guards on the lookout for suspicious packages of
cookies, pretzels, hot-dog buns, and pound cake. Observant Jews have
till Wednesday to clear their houses of hametz (leavened products)
before Passover, and every year many of them take their castoffs to
the zoo. Baffled zoo staff note that the snow monkeys are the main
beneficiaries of the pre-holiday pig-out, apparently because the polar
bear's glass wall is too high and the sea lions would only be
interested if offered gefilte fish. "If a big group comes in carrying
bags, admission is going to notice," says zoo spokesperson Kate
McIntyre.

The small, pink-faced snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) may not mind
the interruption to their grooming routine and carefully prepared diet
of fruits, greens, and nuts, but their caretakers sure do. Standard
protocol is to politely ask food-throwers to stop. If they persist,
security hovers and asks again (last year, one food-flinger said, "I
don't answer to you; I answer to a higher power"), but they are rarely
ejected. "They really don't know why they shouldn't do it," says one
zoo volunteer. "They think they're doing a good deed. I can't say they
like it when I tell them to stop. My answer to them is to take it to a
shelter." Other volunteers aren't so tolerant. "If we see them do it,
we should either frisk them for food or throw them out," insists one.

But Yula Kapetanakos, an assistant curator, notes that the observant
visitors don't throw anything that bad. The real risk for the animals
in eating too much people food is that they will get fat and lazy.
Often the monkeys become so sated after their pre-Passover feast that
they won't go inside later for dinner.

Rabbi Moshe Elefant of Orthodox Union says there's no religious
imperative to give the food to animals. Still, "our tradition is not
to waste food," he says. "If we could give it to some animals to eat,
that's the best." And since the run-up to Passover is so busy, Elefant
says, the zoo's just convenient. It's more common for Orthodox
families to go to city zoos in the middle four days of Passover, when
the kids are out of school. Kapetanakos says the main things thrown by
the big crowds then are bananas and matzo, that Passover staple. But
Rabbi Elefant says, "I'm not sure how many animals are up for matzo."