Support the Captive Primate Safety Act

The Captive Primate Safety Act HR 3199 / S. 1594 has been reintroduced to the 119th Congress, with bipartisan support, by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL).
 
The Captive Primate Safety Act would:
  • Make it unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or in a manner substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce, any prohibited primate species (chimpanzee, galago, gibbon, gorilla, lemur, loris, monkey, orangutan, tarsier, or any hybrid of such species).
  • Make it unlawful to breed or possess any prohibited primate species.
  • Limit direct contact between the public and any prohibited primate species.
 
There are major welfare concerns and significant potential for suffering when primates are kept as pets. Nonhuman primates are highly intelligent, social animals who suffer in commercial trade. Babies are forcibly removed from their mothers, and when caught in the wild parents may be killed. After long, dark journeys as 'cargo', they face a life of isolation, away from their own kind. Primates taken from their families suffer psychologically from the unnatural environment in human homes and this often leads to abnormal behaviors. They are unpredictable wild animals, who may be aggressive or bite, they often suffer through having their teeth painfully extracted.
 
ADI has documented the severe physical and psychological suffering endured by primates kept in the exotic pet trade. Confined to cages, often denied companionship, and subjected to neglect or abuse, captive primates suffer from stress, abnormal behaviors, and chronic health issues. Their complex needs can never be met in a human home environment. A human dwelling and human companionship cannot provide primates with the communications, or environmental and mental stimulation they require to develop normal primate behaviors essential to their well-being.
 
There is also the potential threat to native wildlife should they escape. As we know from the pandemic there are health risks from exotic animals in unnatural circumstances.
 
Nonhuman primates belong in the wild with their families - not as pets or entertainment for humans. Treating them as such is inhumane, and it puts the public at risk of attacks and dangerous viruses.
 
The Captive Primate Safety Act would help end this cruel and dangerous trade.
 
Please urge your Congress members to support the Captive Primate Safety Act HR 3199 / S 1594.