i saw a monkey & it was owned by a girl & it looked pretty happy 2 me..it took her bottled water&drank it.lol!

Question

there is nothing wrong with having a monkey as a pet..it is just like having a flying squirrel..they are wild too.!

Answer 1

Unlike a flying squirrel(which also should not be kept as pets), monkeys are capable of inflicting real injuries to someone. They are also much more intelligent than a flying squirrel, and need constant stimulation(which people cannot provide). Just because something is cute does not mean it is supposed to be a pet. Talk to that girl after her pet reaches sexual maturity and cannot be controlled anymore.

The pet monkey trade is very sad, so many monkey end up abandoned hen they hit puberty(around the age of 4). Wild animals are not meant to be pets.

Here are some pics of bites from supposedly tame monkeys
http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/miabite.jpg
This monkey didn't even have teeth.

http://www.aesop-project.org/Images/capattack.jpg
Not for the squeemish

Answer 2

I used to own a monkey. The problem is as they mature they get mean. A young monkey looks at you as its parent and they literally are a barrel of laughs. As they get older, they change and there is nothing you can do about it. It's there nature as they are a wild animal. As sweet as my monkey was, the time came where he had to go to a wild life preserve. They can be very strong and really hurt you. They should never be sold as pets. It's not fair to the animal.

Answer 3

And sometimes they turn nasty and can inflict a LOT of damage on the owner or people around the owner.

I have known two people who were "fosters" for Helping Hands monkeys, and both were bitten pretty badly.

Wild animals belong in the WILD. Not as pets.

They do carry MANY diseases that can be transmitted to humnas. Some are very serious if not deadly!

Answer 4

I agree with the last answer.. and also.. sharing a water bottle with a monkey (even a pet) is dangerous.. their mouths carry bacteria we can't tolerate.. and many have diseases that they are carriers of.. that are fatal to humans.
Copied from the following site:

1. Prosimians, monkeys, apes and humans are all primates. We share many characteristics and we share diseases. As our closest relatives, non-human primates can transmit mild to highly dangerous diseases to their owners, their owners' family and friends. Diseases like the common cold, internal parasites, hepatitis A, tuberculosis and even the often fatal Herpes B virus.

5. Primates are social. Under natural conditions they live in social groups and have constant companionship. Now think about the number of minutes per day you spend with other pets such as a dog. Thirty minutes? Two hours? Primates need more, much more. Once the decision has been made to remove the infant primate from its mother's care in order for it to become Your pet, You become its social life. Planning to have a job, go out with friends, see a movie, shop? Continuing to lead your normal life and leaving your pet to spend the majority of its day alone is both unnatural and inhumane.

7. Once they reach sexual maturity, non-human primates become more unpredictable and dangerous. Even small primates are deceptively strong and all primates have damaging canines. Gentle one minute, they can inflict severe wounds when suddenly frightened, surprised, confused or frustrated. Owners are often shocked and feel betrayed. Believing they should not risk further aggression, responsible owners typically make the decision to reduce contact with the pet.

8. Non-human primates that become emotionally bonded to their owners, a trait that pleases and is encouraged by the master, can become jealous and attack visiting family, friends, neighbors, new boy/girlfriend or even the mailman. Owners can be held responsible for resulting medical bills and may be subject to lawsuits. Vacations could be out of the picture; finding a qualified caretaker who is accepted by the pet primate and willing to risk chance of being bitten may prove impossible.

9. Many small animal veterinarians do not want to accept the risk of injury or disease transmission and will not treat non-human primates. Additionally, few have the training to provide expert care.

Answer 5

Monkeys do not make good pets. There is simply no way to care for them thoroughly or safely in one's home. One of their most basic needs is inclusion in a proper social group of their own species, so the fact that you want "a" monkey is a red flag. (If you're now thinking of having several monkeys, forget it, they'll put you in the hospital in no time.)

Aside from the harm this would do to the monkey and to yourself, think of what it takes to bring one monkey to the USA for the exotic pet trade. The answer is the deaths of countless other monkeys. Primate social groups are so tightly knit that they will defend the babies to their deaths, so those who collect baby monkeys to be sold as pets must first kill all adult members of the troop. Even after that is done, only a small fraction of the babies captured survive the transport. By purchasing a pet monkey, you would be supporting this business and ensuring its continuation.

I am a professional primate keeper at a zoo. (Don't get me started about all the private monkey owners who try to dump their animals on us...) One of our gibbons was a victim of this practice. She was kidnapped from the wild as an infant, and her fingers cut off to separate her from her dead mother, to whom she'd been clinging. She then lived as a pet for the first three years of her life, after which her owner had to get rid of her because she had grown too strong, intelligent, and wild to keep. She's lived at my zoo ever since. Having been raised by a human, she was never able to learn how to survive among others of her species, so she must be housed alone. My co-workers and I go to great lengths to provide her with the highest quality of life possible. It is a heartbreaking situation, and it exists because of people who purchase primates as pets.

Also worth noting is that, of the hundreds of employees at my zoo, there are only two groups whose job is deemed dangerous enough that they must carry pepper spray on their persons. One is the large carnivore keepers. The other is the primate keepers, and that includes *all* primates, from tamarins and lemurs to great apes.