 | The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints .(November 2020) |
A pet monkey is a monkey kept as a pet. Monkeys are beloved for their entertainment value, resemblance to humans, and human-like abilities, [1] [2] but the practice of keeping monkeys as pets is criticized by primatologists and zoologists due to issues surrounding conservation, the animals' welfare, and public health and safety. [3] [4]
In the United States, most states restrict monkey ownership, whether via licensing requirements or outright bans, but, as of 2016, 13 states allow it. [5] The United Kingdom passed new legislation in 2024 that makes it illegal to own a monkey without a license. [6] The Captive Primate Safety Act, a bill before the 118th Congress, would have a similar impact in the US if passed. [7]
In the European Union, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary have bans on the keeping of primates. [8]
Internationally, government policies on the primate trade are shaped by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty signed by 184 countries to prevent the exploitation of wild animals and plants. [9] [10]
Monkeys have been kept as pets for centuries, though, in the West, up through the 19th century, ownership was mostly limited to the wealthy — notably, royalty — and to those in the business of entertainment. [11]
When the British first began to explore Africa, young monkeys were often captured and taken back on board the ship to entertain sailors. For example, a Senegal monkey was kept as a pet by a ship's cook in the 19th century and entertained passengers with its antics. [12]
Around the turn of the 20th century in the US, owning monkeys became a social fad, [13] a pattern that would repeat over the course of the century, often spiking as a result of media anthropomorphizing monkeys and normalizing their suitability as pets. In the mid-1910s, for example, dancer and fashion trendsetter Irene Castle was seen publicly and in photos with a pet monkey, inspiring fans to seek similar pets. [14] [15] A 1930 news story noted monkeys' popularity with "society folks," referring to monkeys as providing a " ' delightful background' for the summer parties." [16] Similar trends of monkeys as fashion objects were seen in Europe as well. [17] [18]
As the price of monkeys declined over time, more people purchased them as pets. The market for monkeys in the US skyrocketed in the late 1950s and 1960s. [19] [20] Demand in the U.S. for pet monkeys was so great that in 1955 government officials in Costa Rica expressed concern that it was decimating wild populations there. [21] According to the Simian Society, there were 750,000 pet monkeys in the US in 1971 -- more than the number of registered poodles. But monkeys proved to be much more difficult than poodles to care for. Of the estimated 40,000 monkeys sold each year, roughly 36,000 died within a year. [22] [23] In Los Angeles, health officials expressed concern regarding the "recent own-your-own monkey fad." [24]
While many people enjoyed owning monkeys in their infancy, they found that the animals become unmanageable — “wild” — upon reaching adolescence. [25] In the late 1960s, the first monkey sanctuaries appeared in the US, providing an option for unwanted pets. [26] (Other options included euthanizing the animal or keeping it caged and removing its teeth. [25] ) Access to sanctuaries was limited, however. As a sanctuary founder in Texas stated, his facility can only help "a fraction" of the monkeys who are abused or abandoned: "It’s not the kind of work that there will ever be a solution to." [27]
In the 1970s, a Boston-based group called Helping Hands trained capuchin monkeys as monkey helpers to assist quadriplegics and other people with severe spinal cord injuries or mobility impairments. Due to changes in law regulating the use of primates, Helping Hands shifted away from using monkeys and instead focused on assistive technologies in 2022. [28]
In popular culture both actual and fictionalized accounts of pet monkeys are utilized extensively. Monkeys are popular in numerous books, television programs, and movies. Sun Wukong (the "Monkey King"), a character who figures prominently in Chinese mythology, is the main protagonist in the classic comic Chinese novel Journey to the West . The television series Monkey, the literary characters Monsieur Eek and Curious George are all examples. The winged monkeys are prominent characters in The Wizard of Oz .
However, pop culture often incorrectly labels apes, particularly chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans as monkeys. Terry Pratchett makes use of the distinction in his Discworld novels, in which the Librarian of the Unseen University is an orangutan who gets very violent if referred to as a monkey.
There have been many famous pet monkeys with Tarzan's Cheeta arguably the first famous pet "monkey" although they continued to live in the jungle. Nkima was the original Cheeta-like character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics. Tarzan and Cheeta have been repeated across all major popular culture mediums including books, films, television, games and comics. Katie, a white-headed capuchin, played Marcel in the popular U.S. series Friends and also Los Angeles Angels' mascot "Rally Monkey." Finster played Harvey Keitel's pet thief, Dodger in the movie Monkey Trouble . Bubbles was a companion to Michael Jackson and became intertwined in his celebrity and was even a subject of a Jeff Koons sculpture. Frankie the Monkey has been seen in Sean-Paul and Juliane's magic act all over the country.
Curious George is the protagonist of a popular children's books franchise by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey. [29] The books feature a curious pet monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city. Around the world, the adventures of Curious George have been translated in many languages. [30] The character has spawned books in many languages, two television series, two stop-motion animated shorts, [31] an animated film, Curious George , featuring Will Ferrell, a video game and he has been linked with numerous products and companies.
Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers; and the simians, which include monkeys and apes. Primates arose 85–55 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted for life in tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to the challenging environment among tree tops, including large brain sizes, binocular vision, color vision, vocalizations, shoulder girdles allowing a large degree of movement in the upper limbs, and opposable thumbs that enable better grasping and dexterity. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). There are 376–524 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the 2000s, 36 in the 2010s, and six in the 2020s.
Cheeta is a chimpanzee character that appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s–1960s, as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan. Cheeta has usually been characterized as male, but sometimes as female, and has been portrayed by chimpanzees of both sexes.
The Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) ape and monkey sanctuary, rescue centre and primatarium near Wool, Dorset, England.
James Michael Cronin MBE was the American co-founder in 1987 of Monkey World in Dorset, England, a sanctuary for abused and neglected primates. He was widely acknowledged as an international expert in the rescue and rehabilitation of abused primates, and in the enforcement of international treaties aimed at protecting them from illegal trade and experimentation.
Bubbles is a chimpanzee once kept as a pet by the American singer Michael Jackson, who bought him from a Texas research facility in the 1980s. Bubbles frequently traveled with Jackson, drawing attention in the media. In 1987, during the Bad world tour, Bubbles and Jackson drank tea with the mayor of Osaka, Japan.
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, constitute an incomplete paraphyletic grouping; however, in the broader sense based on cladistics, apes (Hominoidea) are also included, making the terms monkeys and simians synonyms in regard to their scope.
The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) is a not-for-profit animal welfare organization founded in 1973 in Thailand by Shirley McGreal.
Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000 NHPs are used every year in the United States, and around 7,000 across the European Union. Most are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild.
Jiggs was a male chimpanzee and animal actor who originated the character of Cheeta in the 1930s Hollywood Tarzan movies. He was owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry.
Nkima is a fictional character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics. His name comes from either the word N'kima, or, after the Meru language nickname for Ugali, a dish popular in Kenya and Tanzania made from maize flour.
The Captive Primate Safety Act is proposed United States legislation that modifies the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to treat nonhuman primates as prohibited wildlife species, allowing exemptions for zoos and research facilities. The bill would eliminate the use of primates in the domestic pet trade at a federal level. A December 2023 review found that the "U.S. ranked third out of 171 countries in the ease of purchasing a pet primate online, behind Indonesia and Vietnam." The bill, if passed, would raise U.S. standards to resemble those of the European Union, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries where pet primates are strictly regulated.
An exotic pet is a pet which is relatively rare or unusual to keep, or is generally thought of as a wild species rather than as a domesticated pet. The definition varies by culture, location, and over time—as animals become firmly enough established in the world of animal fancy, they may no longer be considered exotic.
The Primate Rescue Center is a primate rescue organization founded by Clay Miller and April Truitt in the late 1980s. The PRC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Wilmore, Kentucky, United States, approximately 17 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky. The PRC provides lifetime sanctuary for rescued primates from all over the United States, and is home to over 50 primates, including a troop of 11 common chimpanzees.
Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary between Caehopkin and Abercraf in Powys, Wales. It became the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary in December 2008, being previously known as Cefn-yr-Erw Primate Sanctuary. The sanctuary is owned and operated by husband and wife Graham and Jan Garen.
Bushbabies Monkey Sanctuary is a privately owned multi-species primate rehabilitation centre situated in the foothills and gorges of the Magaliesberg mountain range, close to Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West Province of South Africa.
International Primate Day, September 1, is an annual educational observance event organized since 2005 largely by British-based Animal Defenders International (ADI) and supported annually by various primate-oriented advocacy organizations, speaks for all higher and lower primates, typically endorsing humane agendas where primates are at risk, as in research institutions or species endangerment in precarious environmental situations.
Jimmy (1952-1968) was a male chimpanzee and animal actor, trained by actor and magician John Calvert. He performed in the 1956 film Dark Venture, alongside Calvert. Jimmy was also featured in Calvert's magic shows in the United States, and onboard his luxury yacht throughout Asia and Australia. He died of a heart attack at the age of 16 at the Perth Zoo.
The Marquis Chimps were a group of trained chimpanzees that were used in variety shows and television programmes and commercials, initially in Britain and then in the United States, from the late 1940s to the 1980s. They were owned and trained by Gene Detroy.
Chimp Crazy is an American documentary series directed and produced by Eric Goode. It follows Tonia Haddix, whose love for a chimpanzee spins into a wild game with authorities and the animal rights group PETA.
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