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Captive Primate Safety Act aims to curb illegal pet trade in the U.S.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The demand for pet primates in the U.S. fuels a brutal underground market. But a new bill in Congress aims to change that by creating a national ban on privately owning and breeding these animals. Stephanie O'Neill has this story.

STEPHANIE O'NEILL, BYLINE: Here at the Oakland Zoo's veterinary hospital, across the Bay from San Francisco, an endangered Mexican spider monkey leaps onto tree branches and climbs ropes in a large kennel turned into a primate playground. Her name is Violeta, and she issues these spider monkey greetings to a visitor.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONKEY CHATTERING)

O'NEILL: The young monkey, who's about 18 months old, was poached from the wild and smuggled into California, where it's illegal to keep primates as pets. In May, after her owner surrendered her during a drug bust, Violeta came to the zoo. And for nearly two months, handlers have been teaching her how to act like a monkey. Amber Foley is a keeper at the zoo.

AMBER FOLEY: We dedicate hours a day to just spending time sitting with her, socializing, grooming, teaching her how to play correctly and interact in a peaceful manner.

O'NEILL: The goal, she says, is to socialize Violeta well enough so she can live out her life at a zoo or sanctuary with her own kind. But for most pet primates in the United States, a life of chronic stress, malnutrition and illness is far more likely, says Colleen Kinzley.

COLLEEN KINZLEY: Anytime you see a spider monkey, a monkey, with a human, the monkey is suffering terribly because it doesn't have its family. And it doesn't have the opportunity, you know, to behave as a monkey.

O'NEILL: Kinzley is vice president of animal care, conservation and research at the Oakland Zoo. She says social media influencers, popular TV shows and films romanticize life with primates, escalating demand. This fuels a brutal trade, one in which countless animals are killed while trying to protect babies from poachers.

KINZLEY: What happens is a number of adults are shot out of the trees in order for the poachers to get hold of the babies, literally rip the babies out of the arms of the dead and dying mothers.

O'NEILL: Yet many states still allow people to keep them as pets, something the proposed Federal Captive Primate Safety Act is aiming to change. If passed, it would ban primate pet ownership in all 50 states. Dr. Andrea Goodnight is a veterinarian at the Oakland Zoo who says keeping primates as private pets is bad for their mental and physical health.

ANDREA GOODNIGHT: It's completely abnormal for them. It has no idea what to do socially, how to function, so you can imagine the level of stress and anxiety that brings to these animals.

O'NEILL: Many of the stolen infants who survive the poaching raids die during smuggling operations. Others, Goodnight says, survive the trafficking only to die from malnutrition or other illnesses before their first birthday.

GOODNIGHT: Some of these animals are so traumatized that they'll just huddle in a corner. And they won't come out, they won't interact, they won't eat. And they can literally starve themselves to death because they're just too scared.

O'NEILL: For those who make it to maturity, about four years of age, she says life often gets exponentially worse.

GOODNIGHT: As these animals grow and become more sexually mature, then they become super dangerous, and people aren't able to handle them. And then a lot of times, then you're stuck with this, well, what do I do with this animal?

O'NEILL: And at that point, says Kinzley, there are few options beyond caging them for life or euthanizing them.

KINZLEY: Coming to a zoo or a sanctuary as adults, often they're so psychologically damaged, you know, it's difficult if not impossible to get them back in a social group.

O'NEILL: Colleen Kinzley says passage of the Captive Primate Safety Act and educating the public are key to protecting these animals. But since its May 5 introduction, the bill has remained stalled in the House Committee on Natural Resources, which has yet to bring it up for debate. Violeta's life, on the other hand, is gaining traction. Late last month, she left the Oakland Zoo hospital and is now trying out a new life with a family of spider monkeys.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONKEY CHATTERING)

O'NEILL: For NPR News, I'm Stephanie O'Neill in Oakland, California.

(SOUNDBITE OF I.AM.TRU.STARR SONG, "(ETC.)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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