PETITION TARGET: U.S. Congress
Helpless baby monkeys are being ripped from their mother’s arms to be sold as exotic “pets” in the United States — where they are held captive in cages or on chains.
Infant monkeys kept as “pets” endure extreme psychological and often physical pain – often leading to unpredictable and dangerous behaviors. It is simply not possible to meet primates’ complex needs in a home environment.
It’s time for U.S. law to recognize that primates are NOT pets.
The Captive Primate Safety Act (CPSA) could help end these animals’ suffering by banning all activities related to the primate pet trade — including possession, breeding, importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, and the purchase of any “prohibited wildlife species or prohibited primate species.”
If passed, chimpanzees, galagos, gibbons, gorillas, lemurs, lorises, monkeys, orangutans, tarsiers, or any hybrid of those species would be protected from enduring lives of isolation and abuse at a federal level.
The reintroduced CPSA would effectively ban the private “ownership” of primates.
“Wild animals belong in the wild, not shackled and mistreated in someone’s backyard,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the bill’s main sponsor in the Senate.
While some states prohibit keeping primates as “pets,” a federal ban is necessary to better protect these innocent beings from wildlife traffickers and the cruel exotic “pet” trade.
We must speak out today to put an end to this cruel trade that is insidiously masquerading as an ethical companion animal industry.
Sign this petition urging House and Senate leaders to pass the Captive Primate Safety Act to save innocent monkeys from lives of deprivation and suffering.
