A new police monkey to replace the late Santisook

By Sumeth Panpetch

Pol Lance Corporal Yutthapol Promdao, unit commander of a special action force based in Saiburi district of Pattani will soon get a new long-tailed macaque (crab-eating monkey) to replace Santisook, a macaque trained to serve as his assistant which was killed by dogs on August 20.

          Thanks to Mr Lamoon Seedaeng, 48, a villager of Tambon Paen in Saiburi, who decided to give away the 5-year old macaque to the police officer.

          “When I first heard about the death of the monkey (Santisook), I approached Pol L/C Yutthapol to offer him one of my three monkeys to replace the dead one.  I understood the feelings of monkey lovers because I myself have been familiar with monkeys for a long time.  When one of them is gone, we feel very sorry,” said Mr Lamoon.

          The villager owns three macques which are usually employed to pick coconuts and one of them will be given to Yutthapol.  “This monkey was named Long that I love very much.  It is about five years old, older than the other two and has been with me for many years.  But I decided to give it to the police officer because I believe he will love it and treat it as good as I do.  And I think it is about time for Long to stop picking coconuts which is a hard work and to serve as an assistant to the police which should be a lighter job,” said Lamoon.

          Obviously pleased with the offer, Yutthapol said he had in mind a new name for Long –  Santiparb (meaning freedom) which is relavant with the name of his deceased monkey, Santisook (peace).  He said he would bring along Santiparb with him whenever he is on duty in the field.

          The police officer recalled the good old days he was with Santisook when the mere presence of the macaque dressed up in a police uniform would normally draw laughters from passers-by.  He also recounted the fateful day on August 20 when Santisook was fatally attacked by three dogs.

          Yutthapol said that on that particular day he had to attend class at the Dao Nai Roi school in Songkhla province and normally he did not bring along the monkey.  But since Santisook was scheduled for the shooting of a film, titled “Mahassajan Leknoi tae Yingyai (Little but Big Miracle) the next morning, he had to bring the monkey with him to the school.  (In the film, Santisook played the role of a medic dog)

          “Normally, Santisook prefers to stay on the tree.  But on that day it rained a lot and I decided to tie him up at the car park.  There were no dogs around at the time but at about midnight I heard the barkings of dogs and someone called me to report that the money was bitten by the dogs.

          “The first thing I saw was that Santisook was badly injured.  So, I immediately took him to a clinic but there was no doctor there.  So I took him to the Songkhla zoo, but it was already too late,” said Yutthapol.

          “He (Santisook) was like my younger brother or my boy althought it was just a monkey,” he added.

          When the news of Santisook’s sudden death spread out, Yutthapol received many phone calls from villagers in Saiburi district offering their condolences and praises for the monkey.

          And among the callers, there was one, Mr Lamoon Seedaeng, who offered to give away one of his monkeys to replace Santisook.

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Photo by Jaroon Thongnual

Caption : Santiparp Promdao, a new monkey to replace Santisook