{
  "id": 10200421,
  "title": "‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/its-hard-to-sell-a-house-when-its-covered-in-baboon-faeces-cape-town",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-27T11:00:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian",
    "slug": "the-guardian",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/27/baboons-cape-town-divided-over-plan-to-remove-its-monkeys-aoe"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The city of Cape Town is facing a contentious issue as it prepares to remove two troops of chacma baboons that have been breaking into homes and shops. The city council plans to sterilise and permanently relocate the animals to a new sanctuary, a move that has been met with strong criticism from animal rights activists. The activists argue that the monkeys should be allowed to roam freely and that less destructive methods have not been adequately explored. The conflict between residents and baboons has been escalating since the 2000s, when the city stopped culling the animals due to public pressure. However, in recent years, the population has grown by a third, reaching 493 baboons, leading to increased confrontations.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}