Urge Your Legislators to Support the Captive Primate Safety Act
Dear John,
Nonhuman primates are wild animals, not pets or playthings. To end the cruel pet primate trade in the United States, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have reintroduced the Captive Primate Safety Act (H.R. 8164/S. 4206)--and we need your help to increase support for the bill in Congress. Primates' needs are irreconcilable with the realities of captive life as pets. Many captive primates spend their entire lives in relative isolation, compared to living in the wild in large social groups. They experience physical and psychological suffering when confronted with unrealistic expectations that they will behave like perfectly trained pets or even "little humans."
These pet primates also pose a serious threat to the people around them, as evidenced by the hundreds of reported injuries nationwide over the last few decades. Captive primates have mauled neighbors, turned on their owners, and endangered local police officers and emergency personnel. Primates also pose a significant threat to public health because they can carry life-threatening diseases that are communicable to humans, including Ebola, tuberculosis, and the Herpes B virus.
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