Pet primates at risk as new law looks set to fail before even coming into force
International wildlife charity, Born Free, is releasing new data exposing a distressing lack of knowledge and compliance ahead of the introduction of a new law designed to protect monkeys being kept as pets in England.
The new legislation, the Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2024, comes into force in just 10 weeks and requires all private keepers of primates in England to obtain a licence for their animals before then. Any private individual keeping a primate on the 6th April deadline, without a licence, will be doing so illegally, and could face an unlimited fine or even jail.
Despite these stringent penalties, and the fact that the window for applications has been open for nearly a year, Born Free’s exclusive investigation reveals only three applications for licences have been made across the whole of England. Those licence applications cover just 11 animals in total. Given the government’s own estimates suggest there could be up to 5,000 primates being kept as pets in the UK, there is clearly a shocking and deeply concerning discrepancy – meaning many hundreds of animals, unknown to the authorities, will remain in potentially unsuitable or harmful domestic settings.
“Wild Futures wants to see a total end to the UK primate pet trade. Primates are intelligent, socially complex, wild animals, inherently unsuitable for keeping in a domestic setting. We see first-hand the devastating effect that being kept as a pet has on primates. 87% of our rescued marmosets never had outdoor access, and many of our rescued monkeys were fed inappropriate diets including sweets and chocolate causing some of them to develop diseases such as diabetes.
As long as there is a UK primate pet trade and private primate ownership, there will be primates kept in inappropriate conditions, with welfare severely compromised. The new regulations are not the ban that many of us have been calling for. However, we were hopeful that, if enforced correctly and supported by sufficiently rigorous guidance, the new regulations could have a meaningful and positive impact on primate welfare and be a step towards our goal of ending private ownership of primates in the UK.
We are alarmed and saddened by Born Free’s data which clearly shows a failure of government to raise awareness of the new licence requirements. We join Born Free in urging the government and local authorities to ensure that people are made aware of the new licencing requirements and that they remain true to their promise of effective implementation and enforcement so that every privately held primate receives the best possible standards of welfare, which is the least that they deserve.”
Sarah Hanson, Director of Wild Futures
