Does the Primate Keeper Have Any Rights?

Do the Primates a Primate keeper maintains have any rights?

In todays climate, primates are politically sensitive and because of this, combined with the new Animal Welfare Act and the soon to arrive Primate Code of Practice, it will show in a responsible and legal fashion that both primates as a species do have rights and that the primate keeper has a legal duty to uphold the rights of their charges.

Primates today, are distributed between three sectors, novice primate keepers and those looking to or having obtained their first primates, veteran keepers ; those whom are current primate keepers of a few or many years and 'pet monkey' owners.

The latter sector have done more damage to the species than any of the aforementioned could ever do, they are undoubtedly responsible for more of the recent political debates involved with primates than any responsible and genuine keeper could be.

In their minds it is perfectly acceptable to:

Not undertake any kind of research into the species that they now wish to keep and subject to anything from 1 year to the end of its days in a stressful arrangement of life

Keep primates in completely the wrong environment - such as the horrors of an oversize parrot cage within the confines of the living quarters

Ignore the social interaction requirements of their 'pet' - such as denying the animal interaction with a companion of the same species - and worse thinking that their own human company is better than that of a fellow species primate

Ignore the dietary requirements of their primate - such as feeding cheerios, lollypops, cheesey puffs, chocolate biscuits, jam sandwiches as poor examples we alone have encountered from 'pet owners' in the last twelve months

Think it perfectly acceptable to deny their animals any privilages to natural sunlight, instead keeping them shut away in their house, allowing possibly only the sunlight through a window to streak across their already boring and cruel enclosure

Depriving the primate of stimulation and enrichment by not supplying anything other than if lucky a branch inside its already way too small habitat

Thinking it perfectly acceptable to - should a pair be owned - to wrench youngsters off their parents from as young as a day old up to three months of age to sell onto another non researched potential owner

This sector is the pet monkey sector, the wannabe keepers of the United Kingdom that do more damage to primate keeping in one month than could be achieved by specialist, passionate and professional keepers in a year.

However, now with the Animal Welfare Act and the new Primate Code of Practice primates at long last have a recognised code of rights, whilst responsible primate keepers will have their own rights recognised.

Primates will not, thankfully be banned from private ownership, but will at long last be controlled under a code that will should needs arise allow individuals to be prosecuted for cruelty to this beautiful species.

Animal Defender Groups have long sought for the prohibition of primates from the private sector, based upon the antics of the 'wannabe pet monkey keepers', but have agreed that should political protocol be attached to this species, and the regulation enforced upon offenders of cruelty to primates, then this will allow primates to be kept correctly, long overdue, but recognised as a way forward.

Genuine Primate Keepers also benefit from this legislation with the code of practice behind them, for it allows them to again be as recognised as a professional body of keepers, and this in turn awards them their rights of ownership.