Zoo's apes are disciplined, "not abused' Zoo's claim comes in the wake of allegations made by ex-keepers that orang-utans were beaten or punched By EUNICE LAU ZOO keepers discipline the chimpanzees and orang-utans when training them to pose with visitors, said Mr Bernard Harrison, chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves, but the animals were not in any way abused. While he did not deny that the apes are occasionally given a slap on their back, he maintained there was a difference between cruelty and discipline. Allegations of animal abuse have been made by international animal-rights groups, which maintain that training chimpanzees and orang-utans to pose is going against the animals' nature and the amount of discipline needed can only be achieved with punishment and fear. In response, Mr Harrison said: ""I understand the concerns of the animal-welfare groups. But when you are working with young primates, which are like children, there is some disciplining that you need to do. ""There are cases of people who have seen disciplining going on, as you would see parents disciplining their children in public.'' But according to Mr Louis Ng, 22, a university undergraduate who was a volunteer at the zoo for about a year, animals have been abused. Mr Ng told The Sunday Times that he had witnessed a keeper punching three-year-old chimpanzee Rhamba in the face when he was helping out during a photography session. ""She immediately ran to hug me in fear and checked her lips to check if they were bleeding,'' he said. Two former zoo employees also gave The Sunday Times similar accounts of zoo keepers beating, kicking and punching orang-utans to tame them. Mr Harrison said the charges sounded ""highly fabricated''. ""There is a strong bond and a lot of affection between the keepers and the animals. If I find any of my keepers abusing the animals, I'll sack him on the spot and they know that,'' he said. The outcry against the zoo intensified when they learnt of Mr Ng's account. Dr Michael Hutchins of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZAA) said, in an e-mail, that zoos in the US stopped using orang-utans to entertain visitors a few years ago. ""Most North American zoo professionals don't believe that keeping them in isolation from other apes... and training them to perform "demeaning' circus-like tricks, or exploiting them for commercial purposes is either ethical or warranted,'' he said. ""Circus-like shows do not impart the kinds of educational messages that produce respect for these animals or promote conservation awareness.'' In reply, Mr Harrison said animal photography does not warrant the tag ""entertainment''. ""It's just sit down for an hour a day and take a picture. You don't need to beat them to achieve that.'' On US zoos' policy of not using apes to entertain, he said: ""I won't necessarily say that the AZAA does that because of animal welfare. People in the US sue very easily, so that is why you don't have very much contact with animals there.'' Explaining the zoo's stance on animal photography, he said feedback from visitors shows that the contact made them feel for the animals. If interacting with animals through photography made people aware of conservation issues, then there would be such sessions. ""The bigger picture that we want is for people to leave our zoo and say: "Hey, I like animals more now than I did before and I have more respect for them and I want to do things to help','' he said. ""If we can get that message across then that is why we are here. I can't see any other justification for having a zoo.''