Legal monkey-trade in the UK ?

The report states that there were two shops in the UK that had primates for sale (or perhaps we should say,'non human primates', given the title of the report). The species were common marmosets and ring tailed lemurs. The suggestion that you can walk into high street pet shops and by pet monkeys is a massive exaggeration of the contents of the report.
 
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The Born Free Foundation are just trying to stir up trouble after they failed in their recent quest to ban private primate keeping in the UK. It is already regulated and controlled adequately.The government dis-regarded the Born Free Foundations arguments and Chris Draper was annoyed about it so he is "digging for more dirt". He obviously doesn`t have anything better to do with his time!!
 
Totally legal and many privately kept primates are better kept than those in zoos. Not great when they're sold in pet shops though, breeders I know are very careful where their surplus animals go, and at what age, can a pet shop be as meticulous?
 
Don't you have to have a permit to keep them though? From what I've seen from Monkey World's work is that they aren't all that good at inspecting the housing though. I think it depends on the borough council, I think they are the people who warrant the permits.
 
JamesB said:
Don't you have to have a permit to keep them though? From what I've seen from Monkey World's work is that they aren't all that good at inspecting the housing though. I think it depends on the borough council, I think they are the people who warrant the permits.
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The only 'permit' required in the UK for any animal is a DWA licence. Only animals considered dangerous require this, so big cats, big primates, venomous snakes, etc. Marmosets, small primates, small cats, those kind of things, they're not on the list, so anyone can have one if they buy one.
Monkey worlds take has two issues, firstly, they take animals from people who can't cope, so yes, they show people who are clueless and keeping animals badly, quite few considering the huge amount kept here.
Secondly they are anti primate captivity, this has mellowed in recent years, but originally they were reluctant to let animals go to other zoos, and would never approve of a private individual keeping primates, no matter how well. Due to this they are much more eager to show their rescues from private homes with dreadful accommodation than those who came from better homes but due to a deceased owner for example.
 
the higher primates you don't require a DWA licence for (feel free to correct me on any of these):

*all Callitrichidae (marmosets and tamarins)
*douroucoulis (Aotus)
*titis (Callicebus)
*squirrel monkeys (Saimiri)

For lemurs you only need a DWA licence for the Indriidae (except Avahi species) and Lemuridae (except Hapalemur species). All other prosimians and tarsiers do not need a DWA licence.
 
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