Mini, a long-tailed macaque, was rescued after the BBC Eye investigation, The Monkey Haters, that exposed a global online monkey-torture ring…
Now Free Mini, a new short documentary from the BBC World Service, traces her release into the wild.
As a baby, Mini was taken from the forest, her mother killed. Mini was sold to a YouTuber. Her owner tortured her and filmed it for sadistic customers mainly in the US and the UK. In private Telegram groups they were brainstorming and crowdfunding the torture videos. According to the man who ran one of the groups and called himself the Torture King, Mini was a “sadistic trophy”: “Mini was so popular in this hatred world… [when] you think old movie stars, female Marilyn Monroes, in this little demented circle of ours, that was Mini.”
Rebecca Henschke – who had spent over a year tracking down Mini and her torturers uncovered in the BBC Eye investigation, The Monkey Haters – went along for Mini’s release back to the wild. “When I first saw tiny vulnerable baby Mini being abused in videos online, I became obsessed with finding her and seeing her go free. It was amazing and emotional to see her go boldly and curiously into the wild with an adopted family that will look after her in the wild.”
Femke De Haas, the founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN), who has successfully released hundreds of ex-captive and abused long-tail macaques, says:
“If we would have any doubts about her being ready to be released – Mini or any of her family members – we would not bring them to the forest. They underwent… a very long process of rehabilitation, different stages. We observe every detail of this process, and they are ready to be an independent long-tailed macaque back in the forest where they belong.”
Stateside, nine of the key players of the online torture ring have pleaded guilty or been sentenced. Two women, who were key players in the UK, have pleaded guilty and are due to be sentenced in the UK. The BBC Eye investigation also lead to legal changes in the UK, obliging social-media firms to remove online animal cruelty content from their platforms.
The short documentary, Free Mini, is available for viewing on BBC iPlayer in the UK and internationally via the BBC World Service YouTube channel. The content is available on the BBC News website – via bbc.co.uk in the UK, and internationally – on BBC.com, BBC Studios global digital news platform; and in Indonesian via BBC News Indonesia.
