05/14/2025
I am outraged to find that the CAPTIVE PRIMATE SAFETY BILL has been resubmitted to Congress
This bill seeks to ban all primate ownership in the US based on the premise that monkeys are zoonotic and can pass diseases to humans, therefore when they cross State lines they can carry disease.
It’s a lame and fundamentally flawed excuse to exploit a false public perception that all primate owners have huge monkeys that are forced into little dresses and made to behave in ways they wouldn’t normally because we never got over the kids leaving home so they’re the substitute..
In previous articles I would have give a more wordy response to that but my patience with this issue is gradually wearing thin so lets just call it what it is….. bu****it.
Primate owners do it for ANIMAL WELFARE not ANIMAL EXPLOITATION…
Yes theres gonna be the odd crazy owner or immoral breeder BUT like in anything that involves humans BUT the primate community is very close and self policing and if anything untoward goes on be sure it will be found out and people will step in.
There is NO SHORTAGE OF REGULATON TO PRIMATE OWNERSHIP IN THE US. It’s not the wild west like some would have you believe. The USDA regulates all primate breeding, ownership and transport, working alongside State Fish and Wildlife Departments.
Many States have already banned primate ownership, many require permits, some require chips, some require vaccinations or tests, its ANYTHING BUT THE WILD WEST.
“But they should be in the wild with their own kind” I often hear from well meaning but misinformed people..
MONKEYS SEE US AS THEIR OWN KIND, WE ARE THEIR CLOSESTS PRIMATE RELATIVE.. moreso than cats, dogs, parrots, lizards. Snakes etc. Go find a video of wild monkeys on social media and see how the monkeys always seek out the people. They do that because THEY JUST SEE US THEIR KIND, JUST A DIFFERENT VARIETY. They will even flirt with us, THEY LOVE BEING WITH HUMANS..
In the wild there is a very high fatality rate… due to predators, habitat destruction, lack of food, and disease among other factors.
We breed Marmosets and Tamarins and Owl Monkeys in large well enriched heated and cooled environments with all the friends, food, toys, medication and everything they need to keep them healthy, and because of that they will live anything up to 50% longer than in the wild.
In the case of the Cotton Top Tamarin they are highly endangered after being widely used for animal experimentation back in the 70’s and so breeding in captivity is keeping the species going, while their native habitat in Colombia is under threat.
In the wild around 40% of our monkeys would be dead… But because we were there to care for them - we could help with the difficult delivery or the baby that fell which would have died. We can get them to the vet for a C section if required, sow up an umbilical tear, medicate a sick baby, rescue one whos Mom rejects her and tries to eat her, or can’t produce enough milk so the babies fall off and would die…
In the wild these ones would all be dead. But they aren’t because they’re with us…and THEY WILL LIVE MUCH LONGER THAN IN THE WILD
“But surely some breeders don’t care who they sell to” we hear. It has been true in the past but it’s less and less so nowadays. We got into it to do things differently, better, to raise standards, including of vetting potential owners, and others have followed suit. We all tend to know everyone and the bad ones don’t last long nowadays.
If anyone hears of an animal being raised in less than ideal conditions people will intervene or offer a new home, there’s rarely a shortage of potential homes, unlike with dogs or cats. The average primate owner will spend at least 5 times more on care of their primate than they will on a dog or cat or other animal companion.
Only a USDA license holder can sell a primate and as a breeder we are inspected annually by the USDA who are especially hot on paperwork, they want to see when the animal was born, who it came from if it came from someone else and the sales paperwork along with necessary permits or copies of owners drivers licenses.. This is to stop monkey trafficking and they are very good at it and very thorough so its not like there’s any shortage of regulations or mechanisms to track primate sales. We are also required to have a veterinary inspection and report every year.
Back to the issue of ZOONOTIC DISEASE TRANSFER, Every baby we sell has a veterinary health certificate and f***l test to show they are parasite free, so again this idea of primates crossing state lines full of disease is just not realistic. The overwhelming majority of cases is where the primate caught something from the human and died… not the other way around
And as for regulations EVERY PRIMATE OWNER WANTS REGULATIONS TO BE ENFORCED TO PROTECT THE ANIMALS.. There’s no shortage of them so this bill isn’t solving anything, we need more effort to enforce the existing rules.
Most of us would agree that in the case of the large primates these are special cases and not for everyone and so we welcome the requirement for permitting, special training, appropriate facilities and limitations to who can own them… but to regulate them with a blanket ban the same as you would a 1 pound Marmoset is INSANE.
We know that many of the people who jump on the “they should be in the wild not pets” bandwagon are WELL MEANING BUT THEY ARE UNINFORMED, and extreme cases are being shown to them to deliberately solicit their outrage as if primate owners are the villains not the animal carers.
In our case if this bill passes it will wipe us out financially. We wont get the return on the hundreds of thousands of dollars we’ve invested in facilities that the USDA inspector calls “the gold standard” and more importantly the sales that supported our ability to rehome monkeys who’s owners could no longer keep them, means that they would have to find a home.
When we take them in they are not required to breed, they just get a good home and to choose a companion if they want one.. They get looked after for life and that is all paid for by the sales of the pairs who do breed…. But that all goes away and so although it will be a massive gut punch to us, and completely disrespecting everything we’ve done for primate welfares, these little guys will suffer.
Please educate the people you know who are tempted to jump on the bandwagon and support the bill, and ask them to look beyond the obvious hit pieces like the insane “chimp crazy” and to see what really happens as opposed to the one-offs designed to discredit everybody who’s in the field of primate care.
Most primate owners in the US don’t own huge monkeys or chimps that are crashing around the house wrecking things like they’d want you to believe but smaller animals, the most common weighing only 1 to 2 pounds.
We have our own owners group on facebook so that people can see the reality of small primate ownership just search for MONKEY BUSINESS FLORIDA FRIENDS AND FAMILY, others have similar..
Although I’m mentioning our situation there are many like us who’s lives have been dedicated to primate welfare who will be devastated, and the BILL WILL DO NOTHING FOR PRIMATE CARE EXCEPT DAMAGE IT and drive ownership underground.
Its an obvious political hit piece, probably not partisan political but designed by people with a transparent agenda to end exotic animal ownership for whatever reason… and it will harm not help the animals
SAY NO TO THE CAPTIVE PRIMATE SAFETY BILL
Steve Gunn - Monkey Business SWFL LLC, Punta Gorda FL
