On Channel 5 Sunday 20th July at 8pm was the shocking TV programme featuring the largely American trend of keeping pet primates as "substitute children", these primates are usually bought as infants to be brought up in the family and treated as if they were children!! I am not against the keeping of primates by responsible and knowledgable private animal keepers, but they should not be kept in that way as shown in the programme. There was even a "community" of these people with their own vets, who were willing to "change" these poor animals, to make them fit in more easily with their families by extracting their canine teeth and castrating males etc.. in order to reduce aggressive behaviours which develop in adolescent males as they grow obviously. The cages for these unfortunate primates were mainly extremely small and totally unsuitable. Capuchins (two species), and Grivet Monkeys were shown. Though I know Chimps and many other primates are also kept. In fact there are 15,000 primates privately owed in the USA, and obviously some are kept by responsible and sensible owners. But the practice shown in the programme is being discouraged with 20 US states now banning the keeping primates privately. But unfortunately this also does affect the other more responsible primate owners too. Any thoughts????
