The global trade in pet monkeys and other primates is being mainly driven by greed and social media, according to wildlife protection advocate Nina Plail.
It’s a familiar pattern: People see a warm and fuzzy baby primate online and decide they want one for a pet. Wild baby monkeys are “adorable,” Ms. Plail said, but their cuteness fades as they grow older and become aggressive.
Many primates will attack their owners once they reach sexual maturity at around 2 years old, and owners may not realize the amount of work required to care for an adult primate.
“When bonded with a human, they’re going to cling to them like their mother. They’re going to be amazing,” Ms. Plail told The Epoch Times.
“But when they reach maturity, they almost always get aggressive. They start biting. They start singling out people in the family they don’t like. They sometimes start seeing their human caregiver as a mate, and they attack anyone who comes near.”
Once this happens, unruly primates usually end up in wildlife sanctuaries as unwanted pets or disappear.
“No human can meet the social needs of a monkey. These animals [exist] to be on the tops of trees,” she said.
Ms. Plail said she has received more than a dozen pet monkeys surrendered in the past two years to Chase Animal Rescue and Sanctuary in Webster, Florida.
In each case, the owner no longer wanted the primate because it became aggressive or was too difficult to manage.
“For one small sanctuary in the middle of nowhere, it’s a large number,” said Ms. Plail, who is the director of the sanctuary.
“For sanctuaries like ours, it probably costs us $10,000 to build a new enclosure.”
Social media plays a significant role in the global online market for pet primates, both legally and in the black market, she said.
According to some estimates, the international trade in wild primates, which remains largely unregulated, generates $117 million to $138 million annually. For example, Ms. Plail said that wild capuchin monkeys can fetch up to $20,000 each online.
With the rise of the internet and social media, obtaining a primate is easier than ever.
“What would you do 20 years ago if you wanted a pet monkey? You'd have to hope you knew someone who knew someone who maybe knew a broker or a breeder,” she said.
“Chances are you would never find one.”
Now, a quick search online will produce an entire list of sellers.
“It gives you access to what you want when you want it, whether it’s right or wrong,” Ms. Plail said.
A study published by the National Institutes of Health Library of Medicine estimates that more than 15,000 primates are owned as pets in the United States.
Pet Influencers
So-called social media influencers use online technology to promote exotic animals on digital platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
However, critics say they often present a false image or narrative of the pet’s actual living conditions. Instead, the goal is to rack up likes, shares, and followers on social media, which can translate into a lucrative income stream.
Ms. Plail said she considers social media to be a double-edged sword.
While many wild pet sites will provide helpful information on essential feeding, care, and other topics, others depict animals housed in substandard quarters and, in some cases, physically or mentally abused.
“I don’t see a sadistic element to [pet primates]—almost the opposite,” Ms. Plail said. “These are people that love animals and manage to have a little bit of money—because you have to—and for whatever reason feel they want to get a monkey.
“Some people do it because their kids grew up and went to college, and they want a baby to dress up. Some people do it because they think it’s cool and they want to show their friends. It starts with that motivation.”
The flip side is that a baby pet primate “may seem precious now,” Ms. Plail said. But “it’s going to attack” at some point.
In 2021, a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 17-year-old pet chimpanzee that attacked a woman in eastern Oregon. In a 2010 incident, a police officer in Stamford, Connecticut, fatally shot a 14-year-old chimp that mauled a woman after consuming Xanax.
‘Sanctuaries Are Full’
Wildlife advocate Deborah Williams, who lives in Florida, said she recently acquired two adult vervet monkeys from a woman who paid $12,500 to a seller on Facebook. They will now be permanently housed at Ms. Williams’s sanctuary.Ms. Williams is the director of the nonprofit Dania Beach Vervet Monkey Project in Fort Lauderdale, which provides shelter for surrendered primates, and the staff monitors about 40 wild vervet monkeys.
The woman said the buyer had seen both of the vervet monkeys in videos posted on one Instagram account with nearly 8 million followers.
One of the monkeys had its front teeth removed but without authorization, as required by the Animal Welfare Act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, following a routine inspection, eventually revoked the online content creator’s license to keep the monkeys as pets.
Ms. Williams said she believes that the online sale of pet primates is almost always “at the cost of the animal.”
“I do not think people should be allowed to have exotic pets on social media,” she said. “It creates this idea in the minds of viewers that it looks cool and they can do it too.”
She too said that many pet owners discover that caring for a wild monkey isn’t as easy as it looks on social media.
“Now, they have a problem. They look to dump them in sanctuaries,” Ms. Williams said. “The sanctuaries are full. It’s all because [people] got this great idea from social media. People are under the influence [of social media] even though they think they are not.
“There’s very little enforcement. Many people use these animals for likes and shares on social media. I think law enforcement is overwhelmed.”
Ms. Williams said she received a tip about one social media influencer claiming to have obtained a male vervet monkey as a rescue from a research lab in Nevada.
She posted a video criticizing the monkey’s living conditions and questioned how the man came to possess the monkey. The video triggered an angry online rebuttal from the pet owner.
“I don’t like the fact that he’s on social media showing his lifestyle with the monkey because it’s inappropriate care for the monkey,” Ms. Williams said.
“He does all these stunts to get likes.”
Some of the videos posted to social media show the man and the monkey traveling in a van, eating fried chicken and watermelon, and sharing ice cream. One video shows the monkey running amok in a hotel room and breaking objects. Another shows him running loose in a large retail store.
“I actually worry about the safety of the animal,” Ms. Williams said. “I’m afraid the animal will get out and bite someone. Law enforcement will confiscate and euthanize.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the monkey’s owner on YouTube. In an email, he responded, “I don’t have time; I am too busy building a fortune.”
Michelle Sinnott, director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the organization filed a complaint against the influencer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“As far as we know, USDA has done nothing in response to the September 2023 complaint,” Ms. Sinnott told The Epoch Times.
“Make no mistake, his online conduct is regulated by the Animal Welfare Act. He needs a license from the USDA and does not have one. The reality is that it is easy for people to acquire primates through the exotic pet trade. There are breeders all over Florida and other states where it is easy to buy all kinds of primates,” she said.
“Regardless of where [the monkey] came from, most monkeys kept in homes are acquired as infants. In order to acquire them as infants, they are torn away from their mothers.”
Ms. Sinnott said that vervet monkeys are highly social wild animals. They typically live in groups of up to 50 primates and spend much time grooming each other and building family bonds.
TikTok and Facebook didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
Dark Side
Ms. Sinnott said there is also a dark side to the social media pet trade that involves abuse and torture in some cases. The biggest problem is that social media perpetuates the notion that human interaction with wildlife is safe and “generally acceptable,” she said.“We have seen and gotten more complaints in the last five years about content from social media influencers with animals they claimed were pets,” she said.
“Everybody is trying to be a social media influencer. It’s becoming more of a trend, which is why people need to be aware of the content they’re consuming online.”
The animal advocacy group World Animal Protection said the macaque monkey from North Africa is another species of wild primate facing exploitation by social media.
“Think that pet monkeys on social media are cute? Think again. Macaques are being abused as pets on social media, and social media platforms are failing to protect them, animal experts warn,” the organization said on its website.
The site referred to a study on the internet trend by the Asia for Animals’ Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition. The coalition reported finding significant evidence of monkey abuse by content creators online.
Between September 2021 and March 2023, the study reviewed 1,226 content links from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube that showed macaques being kept as pets. Content ranged from seemingly harmless treatment of the monkeys to graphic physical and mental “torture.”
Captive Primate Safety Act
Ms. Williams said the problem is that some states allow monkeys to be sold and owned as pets; others have banned their possession or require a license.In Florida, possessing a wild vervet monkey requires a Class II license, 1,000 hours of experience working with primates, and two letters of reference.
The Florida Wildlife Commission defines Class II wildlife as any animal species that presents a “real or potential threat to human safety.”
Arizona state law prohibits ownership of macaques, apes, and baboons as pets, while Georgia state law bans the private ownership of apes, sloths, and monkeys. At least nine states don’t have laws governing the sale or possession of pet nonhuman primates.
A nonhuman primate is defined in federal law as “any nonhuman member of the highest order of mammals including prosimians, monkeys, and apes.”
“It’s not just the federal laws that are in play,” Ms. Sinnott said. “In this case, it’s the state laws that are in play as well.”
Ms. Plail said the proposed federal Captive Primate Safety Act would ban the trade and ownership of nonhuman primates in the United States.
The bill would ban primates including “chimpanzees, galagos, gibbons, gorillas, lemurs, lorises, monkeys, orangutans, tarsiers, or any hybrid of such a species.”
The bill’s sponsors include Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
“Primates are not pets. Allowing these animals to be kept in private captivity is not just cruel. Enacting this bipartisan, commonsense proposal is long overdue to protect both primates and the public,” Mr. Blumenauer said in a written statement.
Ms. Plail and Ms. Williams both support the legislation, which aims to create a unified statute governing the marketing or possession of wild primates in the United States.
“It has to be across all 50 states so there aren’t these loopholes. There’s no uniformity, and that’s part of the problem,” Ms. Williams said.
“The pet primate trade is cruel. Infants are ripped away from their moms. It’s traumatic for the mom and infant.”
