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Pet primates: a life worth living?By Asia Krispijn (1058762)
April 20th 2024
BHE-31306_2023_5
In
Jones, D. (2024). Squirrel monkey male.
Obtained from: https://www.exoticanimalsforsale.net/animals/78447/78447-squirrel-
recent years,primates have become increasingly alluring as pets, monkey-male by particularly
virtue of the positive view pet primates get through social media. Cute videos
, circulate on TikTok showing pet squirrel monkeys, capuchins, macaques or
marmosets, to name a few. Although they may look like cute pets, the reality is
far from it.
How primates reach their owners is often overlooked. Through the illegal trade,
young primates are taken from their mother, which is killed, and transported in
bad conditions. Many of the primates die along the way from disease or other
causes. In the case of slow lorises, their venomous teeth are also removed with
nail clippers without anaesthetic, which can lead to infections and trouble with
feeding later in their life. Besides these intense interventions, the mere removal
from their mothers and families is an extremely traumatic event, and when raised
without other members of their species (contrary to natural conditions), they
show signs of impaired development.
Primates in their natural living conditions have complex social connections with
members of their group and have specific diets that depend on the seasonality of
their food. They move a lot, for instance when they are foraging, swinging from
trees, playing and grooming. When the primate is a pet they are often limited in
their locomotion due to living indoors with humans and at times confined to small
cages. Social behaviour such as grooming can also not be exhibited when they
live alone with humans. Besides this, humans are generally ill-equipped to
accurately read primate behaviour. This is because of how primates have been
portrayed the media and humans natural way of projecting our own emotional
knowledge other animals. For instance a ‘smiling’ macaque may make people
think it is experiencing positive emotions, while it is actually a fear grimace.
Considering primates are not domesticated animals, with a long history of co-
evolution with humans (such as with dogs), makes the inability of people to
accurately read primate behaviours logical. When owners are unable to
accurately recognize stress behaviours and cues, it is bad for their welfare.
In regard to animal welfare, The Five Freedoms were introduced in the early
1900’s and advocate for animals’ needs and rights. The freedoms consist of:
1. Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
2. Freedom from discomfort and exposure
3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. Freedom from fear and distress
5. Freedom to express normal behaviour
Although these freedoms provide a good basis, the goal should be to allow
animals to living a life worth living, not merely a life in absence of discomfort.
Primate pet owners cannot provide this and that is why it is wrong for humans to
keep primates as pets, regardless of how cute they look.
Researchers were able to examine the behaviour of three chimpanzees that were
kept as pets in Spain and later moved to the MONA animal sanctuary in Spain.
One of the chimpanzees had been obtained as pet as an infant (Coco, female),
two others were in a circus for several years and kept as pets afterwards (Tom,
male and Bea, female). As pets, the females shared an enclosure and the male
was alone in its enclosure which were in the owners backyard. Both cages were
5.80 m x 4.45 m x 1.90 m and had a closed roof to protect from bad weather
conditions. All pet chimpanzees were fed a diet consisting of fruits, sweets, ice
cream and sometimes cigarettes. After several years all chimpanzees were
moved to the MONA sanctuary. They were placed in a mixed-sex group of other
chimpanzees living in more natural conditions. Their indoor area was
approximately 30 m2 and outdoor area 3.220 m2. Their diet consisted of fruits,
seeds and vegetables. After the monkeys were at the sanctuary for 10 years, the
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