Congress passes bill prohibiting trade of primates as pets!

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U.S. House of Representatives passes bill to stop the trade ofprimates as "pets"Washington, D.C.-Born Free USA united with Animal ProtectionInstitute (Born Free USA) applauded today's Congressional passage ofthe Captive Primate Safety Act (H.R.2964). The bill, championed byBorn Free USA and The Humane Society of the United States (The HSUS),prohibits interstate and international movement of nonhuman primatesif they are to be kept as pets. The Act is sponsored byRepresentatives Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Mark Kirk (R-IL)."The primate trade involves enormous animal suffering and threats tohuman safety," says Adam Roberts, senior vice president of Born FreeUSA. "These innocent animals may be confined in small enclosures orhave their teeth or fingernails removed. We can't allow animals to bemutilated in the name of companionship. There is simply no excuse forkeeping primates as pets and the trade must

stop."Each year, there are numerous incidents of primates kept in privatehands harming people. Just last week, a child's finger was bitten offby a capuchin monkey being kept as an illegal pet in New York.Moreover, primates can carry a variety of diseases transmissible tohumans."Primates are highly social and intelligent creatures who shouldn'tbe shipped around the country just to languish in small cages," addedMichael Markarian, executive vice president of The HSUS. "Wildanimals belong in the wild, not in our bedrooms and basements. It'stime to end this dangerous monkey business."Born Free USA and The HSUS have called on the Senate to move theCaptive Primate Safety Act expeditiously so it can be signed into lawthis year.Simultaneously, Born Free USA is working across the country to passstate legislation barring the keeping of dangerous wild animals aspets and has passed similar protective laws

in Washington, Kentucky,and Louisiana. The group also has legislation pending in NorthCarolina and Ohio, two of just nine states without laws restrictingthe private possession of dangerous wild animals.Unfortunately, when individuals who acquire primates realize they canno longer care for the animals, they are often discarded and have tobe cared for by others. Born Free USA's Primate Sanctuary in Texas,for instance, offers homes to hundreds of non-human primates, many ofwhom were kept inappropriately, and many times, abusively, as pets.The Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary is one of the very few in theU.S. that provides large, free-ranging, natural enclosures. TheSanctuary features 186 acres of dense vegetation with several ponds.The majority of monkeys live freely in these enclosures with minimumhuman interference."The level of direct care and rehabilitation we provide to theseanimals, and the number of

requests we get to house them, proves thatkeeping them as pets is simply a bad idea," adds Roberts. "Not onlyare these animals dangerous, but they are wild animals with veryspecific physical and emotional needs that the vast majority ofpeople cannot provide."Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute is a nationalnon-profit animal advocacy organization working to conserve andprotect wildlife in the US and globally. Born Free USA is also afounding member of the Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition,www.cwapc.org. More information is available at www.bornfreeusa. www. http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7