Watch as Spanish police rescue two Gibraltar monkeys found locked up in cages at Granada home

Spain's Guardia Civil police force has seized two Gibraltar monkeys found locked up in a cage in the patio of a house in Granada. A 56-year-old man is being investigated for two wildlife and animal welfare offences.

The police received a report that two Barbary macaques were being kept locked up in cages in the courtyard of a house in Granada. After receiving this complaint, the Seprona nature and environment protection unit of the Guardia Civil opened an investigation.

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The Gibraltar monkey is protected under Appendix I of the CITES Convention (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) under the highest possible protection, and it is illegal to own them.

Seprona are working with the Aap Primadomus foundation, dedicated to the protection and defence of animals and a rescue and rehabilitation centre for exotic mammals.

Vets from the foundation accompanied officers to the house and found that, in addition to the offence against wildlife for the possession of prohibited animals, a continuous offence of animal abuse was being committed. The two monkeys - one male and one female - were separated and locked up in rusty cages with sharp protrusions.

They were beinng kept in poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, without a continuous supply of water or shelter. They also showed signs of diseases resulting from years of poor nutrition, alopecia, tooth decay, missing teeth, polyuria and polydipsia associated with diabetes, cushing's and/or metabolic diseases. The animals had not been checked by a vet for more than fifteen years as they were being kept illegally.

Monkeys can suffer from and transmit diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS or herpes virus to humans, so keeping such animals in captivity without the corresponding analytical tests certifying that they are free of these diseases is a risk to public health.

The Guardia Civil has seized the animals, which are now in the care of Aap Primadomus.