For over two decades have Jonas Wahlströmdirector of Skansen-Akvariet, had permission to have lemurs on his farm in Nynäshamn.
It grants him the right to have lemurs on the Sjöhagen property of 15 hectares – not loosely running outside the property boundary.
But during Monday, the private person encountered Anna Gustafsson suddenly on two lemurs near a busy road on Lisö outside Nynäshamn. She remained waiting for a long time at the place for fear that they would be hit.
She tells DN that she knew about Skansen-Jona’s farm nearby and that she therefore suspected that the animals belonged to him – and that turned out to be the case.
– Yes, yes, they are mine. There aren’t that many people who have lemurs in Nynäshamn, so if there are any, it’s usually mine, he says in an interview with News24.
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Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TTJonas Wahlström: “Happens once a year”
But that the male lemurs must have escaped from the farm is something Jonas Wahlström denies. He believes they are curious and have just looked around, which happens “once a year”.
Wahlström tells Nyheter24 that the lemurs run completely free from mid-May to mid-October. That they would move outside the facility is therefore not impossible.
– And it is important to emphasize that they are completely harmless and free from infections. There are no predators on Madagascar, so they have no reason to be aggressive.
Wahlström does not see the fact that there are predators in the Swedish forests that could harm the lemurs as any major risk. Nor that they were found near a busy road.
– During 20 years, I have seen the occasional fox sitting and looking thoughtfully at the lemurs and thinking “What is that?”, but there has never been an attack from foxes. We have no lynx out here, no wolves, no wolverines, no bears.
According to Wahlström, eagles hover over their property almost daily, but they have not attacked the lemurs either.
– And of course there are roads, but they are quite quick to speed over roads. They don’t like to run on asphalt, they want soft ground or preferably sit up in the trees.
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Blame it on the lemurs
According to Anna Sundinhead of unit at the County Administrative Board in Stockholm County, it is against the permit if the lemurs were on the run and were outside the property at Sjöhagen.
– They must not be, she tells DN.
Do you realize that it may be in violation of the permit if it is the case that they are staying off-site, or do you dispute the allegations that this is in violation of the permit?
– I’m not breaking the permit, it’s the lemurs you have to tell if they paw away, says Wahlström to Nyheter24 and continues:
– Formally, you have a permit for a certain area, that is absolutely true. So if the animals are outside the area for a while, then it is formally not according to the permit. But it’s the same with Skansen’s peacocks, it happens that they trot out on Djurgården, and then they come back again.
Whether the lemurs are back at the facility yet is not certain. According to Wahlström, they had still not been taken care of when he contacted the facility’s animal keeper on Wednesday morning.
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Jonas Wahlström had the permit revoked – appealed
It is not the first time that Jonas Wahlström’s permission to keep lemurs has been the subject of discussion.
Last spring, the county administrative board decided to withdraw the permit, as the facility “does not meet the requirements for a breeding facility”, according to a new assessment.
According to Anna Sundin at the county administrative board, there is also an animal welfare aspect to having lemurs on a farm, as Wahlström has.
– The animals can be exposed to unnecessary suffering, for example through predator attacks, she says DN.
While waiting for the issue to be tried in court, Jonas Wahlström retains his permit. The Skansen profile has been informed that the Administrative Court will take a closer look at the case this fall at the earliest.