The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["Mat Honan" <mhonan AT earthlink.net>]

By MITZI PERDUE, Scripps Howard News Service 

(November 14, 2000 12:01 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Infant
monkeys are adorable and in many ways like human babies. Still, if you
ever have the urge to buy one for a pet, April Truitt has some important
advice for you: Don't.

Truitt is the founder of the Primate Rescue Center (PRC) and knows why
buying a pet monkey would be a seriously bad idea. Before we get to her
reasons, though, why would anyone want a pet monkey?

The answer is that, in some circles, at least, a pet monkey is a status
symbol. And people who long for children or who are going through
empty-nest syndrome sometimes feel that a baby monkey could fill the gap.

The result is that hundreds of people in this country pay anywhere from
$3,000 for a capuchin monkey to $40,000 for a female chimpanzee. It's
legal to do it and you can find infant monkeys for sale on the Internet.

However, if you do buy one of these animals it's just about guaranteed
that you'll regret it. As Truitt says, "The media portrays them as
substitute humans, but what you don't see is that these animals are
capable of inflicting horrendous damage."

If you're not familiar with the innate drives of monkeys, it may surprise
you to know that their capacity for doing "horrendous damage" is
hard-wired into them. It's the result of the monkey's hierarchical nature.

When the monkey is an infant and dependent, it accepts a submissive role
in the hierarchy. But as a monkey matures, it has an overwhelming instinct
to wrest its way to the top of the social group. In a human family, the
monkey is apt to challenge and dominate the children first, since they're
the weakest. The monkey's next target is the wife and, finally, the
husband.

Even a capuchin monkey, one that will never weigh more than 20 pounds, can
seriously injure a 200-pound man. "By the time a capuchin is 5 years old,"
says Truitt, "he has figured out that he has the power and the artillery
to injure his human captor."

The power and artillery that Truitt is referring to are the animal's teeth
and nails. To see how this works in practice, take the case of Boog, a
10-year-old spider monkey who now lives at the PRC.

His former owner, a woman, bought Boog as an infant, thinking he would be
a darling pet. However, at age 6, Boog decided one day that he absolutely
didn't want to return to his cage. He went after the woman with his
inch-long razor-sharp canines and weaponlike fingernails, plus his
prehensile tail. The woman suffered multiple severe gashes.

What Boog did was fairly typical. Generally by the time the PRC gets a
call, a monkey has inflicted injury more than once. The injuries happen
because the animals challenge their social hierarchy just as they would in
the wild.

One of the PRC's missions is to try to educate people so they won't enter
into a relationship with monkeys that's going to end badly for both. The
PRC also:

*       Provides a sanctuary or referral to appropriate facilities. 
*       Works to end the illegal trade in primates both in the United States 
and
abroad.
*       Educates the public about the plight of primates caught in the
breeder/dealer cycle.
*       Assists researchers and zoo personnel in finding appropriate placement
for their surplus primates.

Mitzi Perdue writes about environmentally related matters for Scripps
Howard News Service.