Councillor Debbie Andre will be locked in a cage in the foyer of Morrison’s Supermarket in Lake on Saturday to raise awareness of The Wildheart Animal Sanctuary’s primate rescue facility.
Cllr Andre is the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Lifelong Skills and Ward Member for Sandown North. She will spend 5 hours in a small cage between 11:00-16:00 on Saturday during which time she will not be permitted to speak.
Whilst many people will find amusement in Cllr Andre’s incarceration and even question whether such a long period of quietude is even plausible, there is a very serious message behind Saturday’s activity.
Cllr Andre has kindly agreed to participate in this very public ordeal to support the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary and raise awareness of the plight of monkeys and lemurs being kept as pets in often horrendous conditions. Currently, it is perfectly within the law to keep animals such as monkeys and lemurs as pets without regulation which has seen primates kept in birdcages, in front rooms and garden sheds.
The Wildheart Animal Sanctuary is currently building a new world class Primate Rescue Facility that is hoped will eventually become home to many primates who will be rescued from such horrendous conditions when the Government introduces the Kept Animals Bill.
Cllr Andre has kindly agreed to support the Sanctuary by donating her time and commitment to this cause.
So, basically, instead of sorting out the Island schools failing education standards, she ‘promoting’ a totally different cause!?
Are we allowed to throw rotten fruit at her whilst in her ‘cage’?
Í want to be the holdér of the kéy,s…pd
I can think of a lot of Isle of Wight councillors who should be locked up in a cage permanently
Plenty of monkeys in county hall. So we are supposed to donate so that they can put monkeys in cages, albeit a bit bigger.
Can we feed her bananas? She might get hungry.
great stuff.
so in accordance to the species she represents, will she be chucking her faeces at anyone she disagrees with??
That IS What happens with those species , island echo.
Thanks for the laugh on an otherwise rather traumatic day. Now we know where future council meetings are to be held. Got the keys? Oh no, you haven’t lost them.