This thread was inspired by Dunstin Checks In and Marcel from Friends

Thankyou.

Do your own homework,

Yes.We had a chimpanzee at the sanctuary for a few months. It became a bit of an attraction. Unfortunately he reached majority and became far to sexually aggressive.

We searched for months to find a home for him and he ended up in a circus on the Isle of White.

Poor Zambo probably died of old age years ago, but I often think of him, cuddling the kittens and having his photo taken with visiting children.

No

A local pet shop was found selling spider monkeys a couple of months ago. It shouldn't be legal IMO.

you need proper licensing and enclosures for them
but you can keep them, yes. i'm not sure what types exactly though.

it's generally frowned upon however

They come under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1975. So long as you comply with the Act, (which varies depending how your local authority interpret it),you can legally keep a monkey.

However since the Animal Welfare Act 2006 there are also requirements to keep animals with (or apart from) others of their own species as appropriate, and able to exhibit natural behaviour, so you would also have to fulfill these requirements.

Depending on the species and it's rarity status you may also have to look at C.I.T.I.E.S regulations.

Now you have a head start on your research as you know what you need to google.

I believe it is legal to keep some sorts of primates.

HOWEVER - I honestly think these sorts of animals should not be kept as pets....their needs are complex and they are very social animals. There is a world of difference between keeping a domesticated animal such as a cat/dog/rabbit as a pet and a primate, which in most cases will live in entirely unsuitable conditions, be lonely and miserable for all of their lives.

If you want to see primates up close and personal may I respectfully suggest going to visit one of the sanctuaries set up to care for these incredible and sensitive creatures. Monkey World in Dorset is a prime example, and has many, many monkeys there that have been treated cruelly and rescued from the pet trade.

http://www.monkeyworld.org/

I personally find Monkey World to be highly hypercritical.

They campaign against people keeping monkeys and primates as pets and are highly critical of this under any circumstances, even when people have goem to great lenths to ensured they are kept in suitable environmnetal and social conditions.

Meanwhile Monkey World are highly physcially interactive with many of their own primates;hand rearing, hand feeding and frequently interacting directly with close physcial contact, going in with them and holding, stroking and cuddling them.

Yes this enables certain procedures to be carried out more easily and less stressfully but in what way is this not treating them as pets themselves?

Even tame primates that Alison Cronin and her late husband Jim encountered abroad, not under thier care or custody, so without any excuse of stress-reduction handling-training, would still be held, stoked and cuddled i.e. petted, whenever they got the chance to do so

Other places will also use positive reinforcement to made medical procedures and check ups easier for the animals but elsewhere this is often done without going in with the animals.

It seems to me to be very much a case of "Do as I say, not as I do"

I seem to recollect Kilverstone wildlife park used to be the same - the previous owner, Mary Badham I think, publically proclaimed against primates as pets while hiring her young chimps out to be dressed up in human clothes and used in typhoo tea ads

IMO It is hardly setting a good example in either case, and it adds to the idea that these are cute, handleable, cuddly pets.

They also rightly critise poor conditions or poor welfare with pet primates, but consider it acceptable to expose some of thier primates to pain, fear and injury when introducing different individuals