Primate Ban Gains Momentum
For Immediate release Date: 18 January 2012
Wild Future’s Campaign to Ban Primates as Pets
Gains Momentum
Wild Futures, a registered charity based at the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe, Cornwall, has been campaigning for years to end the trade in primates as pets. The campaign this week has gained momentum thanks to South East Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray. Today, Sheryll presented a ten-minute rule bill to Parliament, to ban the keeping of primates as pets. The outcome was successful, with outcome for a second reading scheduled for March.
Sheryll first became involved with Wild Futures when she visited its flagship project, the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe, Cornwall. She was so taken with the monkeys’ stories that she adopted one of them, Donkey. Since then she has been supporting the work of Wild Futures and raising awareness amongst MP’s of the primate pet trade.
The keeping of primates as pets in the UK is currently legal, and it is estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,500 privately kept individuals in the UK today. In 2010 the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) introduced secondary legislation regarding the keeping of primates: The Code of Practice for the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-Human Primates. Although this was a step forward, Wild Futures believes that this code has been largely ignored and that stronger measures are required. Wild Futures strongly believes that the only way that primates can be given adequate protection is to ban the trade in primates completely.
Cases of primates being kept in inadequate and damaging conditions are regularly in the news. Just last week a Dudley couple were disqualified from keeping pets for life after it was discovered they had sold a severely malformed baby marmoset called Mikey to a pensioner rather than take it to a vet.
Wild Futures has become home to many monkeys over the years. Grips, a capuchin monkey, arrived at the Sanctuary in 2010. He was hand-reared by his human owner after the death of his mother. Grips arrived at the Sanctuary in poor condition, emaciated and losing fur. His veterinary check revealed a worrying health problem; his blood sugar levels were abnormally high – probably due to an inappropriate diet and frequent sweet “treats”. He is now being treated for diabetes.
Today Wild Future’s Monkey Sanctuary announced that it has agreed to home another male capuchin monkey, Billy. At only 18 months old, Billy was illegally smuggled into the UK at least a year ago from Europe. Until recently, he’d been kept illegally in a London flat, without the appropriate paperwork, quarantine or licence. He was confiscated 4 months ago after being reported to the police and has been in quarantine since. As he cannot be released back into the wild, Wild Futures have been asked to give him a home.
Brooke Aldrich, Campaigns Manager from Wild Futures states: “The popularity of keeping primates as pets appears to be growing in the UK, as is the evidence that life as a pet is extremely damaging to the individual primates involved. Wild Futures would like to see an end to this trade, via legislation but also via a true public understanding of the issues. There is no such thing as a “domesticated” primate – they are wild animals and as such really suffer when kept in peoples’ homes, without any others of their kind, or treated like toys or substitute children. Most people who consider the facts cannot help but come to the same conclusion we have: primates are not pets. We are grateful to Sheryll Murray for once again bringing this subject into the public eye!”
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Notes to Editors:
Wild Futures (Charity reg. No. 1102532) is an educational and environmental charity promoting the welfare and conservation of primates, and working to end the abuses of primates in captivity. Its flagship project, The Monkey Sanctuary, in Cornwall, is home to victims of the primate pet trade. Drawing on over 45 years of primate expertise, Wild Futures acts as an advisory body to sanctuaries and conservation organisations in the UK and overseas and advises DEFRA on UK animal welfare legislation.
For more information or photographs, please contact:
Hayley Dann, Head of Income Generation and PR
www.wildfutures.org +44 (0) 844 272 1271
Rachel Hevesi, Head of the Sanctuary
Brooke Aldrich, Primate Welfare team