52 BBC WILDLIFE December 2021
which is listed on the Dangerous Wild
Animals Act list of species.
It is this list that until now has provided
the only restrictions on keeping primates as
pets. The Dangerous Wild Animals Act of
1976 was introduced in the face of a growing
fashion for keeping dangerous species. It
lists a select number of primate species,
including all great apes (chimpanzees,
gorillas, bonobos and orangutans), as well
as capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys and
others. Anyone wanting to keep one of
these must obtain a licence from their local
authority and meet particular minimum
safety and welfare standards. These licences
apply only to public individuals, and exempt
zoos, circuses and pet shops (which have
their own regulations), as the act specifically
relates to pet-keeping.O
rganisations such as
Monkey World see these
existing restrictions as
wholly insufficient for
protecting primates, partly
because if a species is not considered
dangerous, it is simply not listed and is
therefore unregulated.“These antiquated laws do not protect
primates, but simply provide grounds
for prosecution after abuse has already
occurred,” explains Charlie Crowther, a
representative from Monkey World.
“The Dangerous Wild Animals licence,
the only barrier to keeping a primate as a
pet, does not protect primates but instead
ensures the public are protected from
escapes. There are also 85 species of primate
delisted from the act, which means they can
be bought without a licence or being on
a register.”
This woeful lack of regulation has led to
the state we are in today, where intelligent
animals with complex needs are bought and
sold without scrutiny, often by people with
little idea of how to care for them. Sellers
are often unscrupulous and ill-equipped.
As well as being sold from inappropriately
small cages in pet shops like my (particularly
notorious) local one, primates are also sold
through online ‘rehoming’ pages and buying-
and-selling websites. Though some websites,
including Facebook, have recently banned
the sale of animals through their sites, online
classified ads still make up a large part of the
pet primate trade.The RSPCA has found
monkeys kept in bird
cages, glass-fronted
cupboards and shedsPrimate needs and desires cannot
be satisfied in a domestic setting
For example, with a simple Google search
of ‘monkeys for sale Manchester’, I was able
to find local ads for marmosets, squirrel
monkeys and capuchins within seconds. It’s
that easy and unchecked. All you need is the
cash – a single marmoset will set you back
about £2,000.
Though the precise number of primates
in private ownership is unknown, due to
the nebulous and unregulated nature of the
trade, most estimates place the number
between 1,000 and 7,500 individuals. These
numbers are partly extrapolated from the
number of surrenders and rescues of pet
primates, as owners give them up willingly or
are forced to by authorities.W
hy is keeping a
primate as a pet such
a problem? Unlike cats
and dogs, monkeys and
apes have not been
domesticated. The process of domestication- taming an animal to live comfortably with
humans through selective breeding - takes
thousands of years, and domestic animals
are often very different to their wild
counterparts. Though they may be captive
bred, pet primates are still wild animals, with
all the unsuitable and dangerous behaviours
that come with it.
Primates are also uniquely social,
intelligent animals, with needs and desires
that cannot be satisfied in a domestic setting.
“They require specialist diets, inside and
outside enclosures, the companionship of
their own kind and niche wildlife vet care.
Most domestic vets do not know how to care
for primates,” explains Crowther.
The implications of a life in captivity
therefore make for bleak reading. “All the
primates who have come to us arrived
with psychological or physical issues,”
Crowther tells me. “These include metabolic
bone disease due to an incorrect diet
and environment, muscle wastage, organ
failure, dentition problems, broken bones,
self-injurious behaviours, agoraphobia and
aggression.”
One such individual rescued by Monkey
World, just this July, was TikTok, and the
story of this infant marmoset encapsulates
many aspects of this grim trade. Named
after one social media platform, TikTok was
sold over another, Facebook, even after its
animal trading ban came into force. Monkey
World believes social media platforms bear
some culpability for the primate pet trade, as
traders use them not only to drive sales but
also to glorify pet ownership, with ‘cute’ pet
monkey videos garnering huge engagement.
“We believe influencers use monkeys
to increase their ‘likes’ and reach, and so
the keeping of monkeys as pets is both
normalised and portrayed as inspirational,”
Crowther explains.