Monkey World and the UK Primate Pet Trade

For more than 30 years, Monkey World has been battling the legal UK primate pet trade! Since the park opened, as well as dealing with the worldwide illegal wildlife trade, Monkey World needed the UK government to address the home-grown issue of legal pet primates.

From Monkey World’s first rescue of a female capuchin from a pet home in Leicestershire in 1989, to the 123rd pet trade rescue of a marmoset from Halifax in 2022, Alison and Jim Cronin saw too many primates kept in solitary confinement in sitting rooms, sadly with no access to outside space and being given wholly inappropriate diets which cause malnutrition and bone deformities. Tragically, the law only allowed prosecution of animal cruelty, and Monkey World had to battle for owners to allow the animals to be signed over for rehabilitation, rather than confiscation.

The law also allowed an incredible 80 species of monkey to be kept without licence or register at all. This led to monkeys such as marmosets, tamarins and squirrel monkeys being traded over the counter and on the internet as easily as goldfish! Primates are highly intelligent, social, and complex mammals, who require specialist care and an environment that cannot be met in a normal UK home. The rise of social media in recent years, where people display their monkeys to garner ‘likes’, has normalised the perception of monkeys as pets rather than wild animals. People who watched celebrities and influencers with their monkeys aspired to own similar, which led to a huge rise in the keeping of marmosets, particularly in the UK.

Monkey World lobbied politicians and petitioned for a change in the law in the nineties. They launched their first petition in 2005, calling for an outright ban, and then another in 2016 calling for a licence or register as a barrier to the trade. All appeals were dismissed by both ruling political parties until 2019, when all three major political parties declared a ban on primates as pets on their manifestoes.

With both their Welfare4Wildlife and the STAMP it out (Stop the Trade & Abuse of Monkeys as Pets) campaigns, Monkey World encouraged supporters to speak up for pet primates. After hundreds of letters written to MPs and thousands of post shares on social media, the message was finally getting through to those in power that the British public would support a change in law, banning primates from being kept in domestic situations.

The law will now come into force under the Animal Welfare Act on 6th April 2025. From then, all people wishing to keep a primate as a ‘pet’ will need to register for a licence, and will have one year to align their care to zoo level standards. Monkey World is still rescuing primates kept in the UK pet trade but feels hopeful that these new laws will stop the sorry sight they have endured for many years.

Thanks to the team at Monkey World, life for rescued primates is sunny, and rescued survivors of the UK pet trade enjoy large, foliage filled outside enclosures, companionship of their own kind, tasty and nutritious natural diets and can live out their life in peace, as naturally as possible.

Be sure to add Monkey World to your ‘Must Visit’ list and show your support for this incredible Rescue Centre. With 65-acres and over 250 primates, there is much to enjoy! Look out for the keeper talks; or have a personalised tour. As well as meeting all the primates, kids will love the adventure playgrounds, of which there are three, the largest being Great Ape Playground. Find climbing frames, cargo nets, swings & slides! Monkey World promises a great day out. www.monkeyworld.org/

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