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Chimpanzee Robby: He spent a large part of his life in the circus
Photo: Rainer_Droese / IMAGO
Circus monkey Robby is dead. On November 11, 2022, the chimpanzee "suddenly and unexpectedly (...) fell asleep forever," said Circus Belly from Lower Saxony on Facebook.
There are different statements about the exact age of the monkey: the owners said it was 51 years old, the animal rights organization Peta at 47.
The chimpanzee became nationally known as a result of a legal dispute.
The animal was born in a German zoo and had lived in director Klaus Koehler's circus for decades.
Animal rights activists had criticized the type of accommodation, the Celle district had ordered in 2015 that Robby should be accommodated in a sanctuary.
The circus operator took action against this – ultimately successfully.
In 2018, the Lower Saxony Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg decided that the monkey could stay with Köhler - although the court came to the conclusion that the accommodation of the monkey without conspecifics was not species-appropriate.
Even then, the age of the chimpanzee was used as an argument: resocialization could take years, and given the ape's short remaining life expectancy, the levy was not proportionate.
In the past, Koehler had referred to Robby as a "family member".
Now he wrote on Facebook: »We have lost our loved one.
We are heartbroken."
Peta had campaigned for years to bring Robby to a sanctuary.
On the occasion of the animal's death, the organization wrote that it was "redeemed from decades of abuse in the circus".
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