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Original poster

Is it ludicrous to want a pet monkey?

154 replies

handbaghoarderr · 10/06/2019 13:51

Hi all,
I have watched the video of the monkey being reunited with the individuals who saved it, and it was so cute, and now I love monkeys and want one. Am I being absurd? The sensible part of my brain would never get one, but the (bigger) reckless part of my brain would. I know it's not feasible, but my heart has been stolen by monkeys. What do I do?

OP posts:

VetOnCall · 10/06/2019 16:59

I always find it odd when people like you OP, decide you want a pet, particularly an unsuitable one like a monkey and try to justify it by stating ‘I just love animals!’

I find this a lot too. I love animals, hence my job, but that doesn't mean I want to actually own them all. I get 'oh you must want to take them all home!' all the time but I really really don't. I know I can't provide an appropriate home for lots of animals/exotic animals/big animals. We have two dogs who I adore and who we work hard to give the best life possible, and they're enough.

Truly loving animals doesn't mean wanting to cuddle them, it means understanding and wanting what is best, most appropriate, safest and physically and mentally healthiest for them. The trade in wild animals for pets is abhorrent. If you really love monkeys, raise some money for Monkey World, or for an organisation that works to conserve habitats so that they can remain and thrive where they really belong.

If you (anyone, not just the OP) want to get a pet please, please research very thoroughly before you do so and make sure that you know what to expect and that you can give the animal everything it needs, as well as the most reputable place/people to get them from (i.e. not from a pet shop or an ad on the internet or the back of a car at the services on the M5 - this really happens and it makes me despair).

Original poster

handbaghoarderr · 10/06/2019 16:59

@Antigonads In the unlikely scenario that I would get one, it would be properly looked after, and I would devote time and money to it.

OP posts:

wheresmymojo · 10/06/2019 17:01

@hipposarerad I have an imaginary smallholding with sheep, cows, ferrets on leads, Pygmy goats in jumpers, alpacas, moles, many foxes and red pandas.

They're very well looked after, they all get on together and none of them shit ever.

In the real world I stick to my four cats who definitely shit

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:02

The only way you could properly look after a monkey is if you go and live alongside it in its natural habitat.

Giving it bed and board in your three bed semi just ain’t going to cut it.

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:05

I’d love a pet lion but they shit everywhere and eat people, so this will have to do ...

hipposarerad · 10/06/2019 17:07

wheresmymojo I love the idea of non-shitting animals. Especially when picking up after the dog.

beanaseireann · 10/06/2019 17:08

I hate monkeys.

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:08

You could get a Shih Tzu and dress him up

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:09

@handbaghoarderr
We went to a monkey sanctuary and I came away thinking that I don’t really like them at all! Quite sinister some of them.

Bluesheep8 · 10/06/2019 17:10

Agree with antigonads. Totally and utterly ridiculous op. Surely an animal lover wants the best for an animal, not the absolute worst....

ScreamingValenta · 10/06/2019 17:11

I always think in relation to pet monkeys - imagine the stress of looking after a young puppy or kitten, when you seem to spend your whole life stopping them getting into things, chewing stuff, scratching, peeing in the wrong place - and multiply it by 1000 - and imagine it never stopping, even when the animal is mature.

If you have ever been to a drive-through wildlife park and seen a group of monkeys gleefully dismantling a car - imagine that in your home. Nothing would be safe, a monkey would be impossible to contain.

That's even before you consider things from the monkey's point of view. A monkey isn't going to be happy in any normal domestic surroundings. Unless you can give it its own forest, and its own family group, it's not going to have enough space or socialisation.

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:11

Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz are still alive op, couldn’t you write to their agents and see if they would do a meet and greet?

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:12

Gorilla’s in the mist.

It would be more like

Baboon in the Cul de Sac.

Antigonads · 10/06/2019 17:13

In the unlikely event you did get one ...

It would not be looked after properly because

It’s a wild animal that lives in groups.

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:19

Some cracking stories on the internet about domestic monkeys

www.nytimes.com/1974/11/23/archives/woman-scared-by-chimpanzee-in-restaurant-loses-a-lawsuit.html

Although it’s actually very sad that a beautiful creature has been reduced to this I must add.

FlurkenSchnit · 10/06/2019 17:22

One of my best friends works at Monkey World and would rip you a new one for even saying you wanted a monkey as a pet!

The stories she tells about the state the monkeys are in when they come to Monkey World after being kept in totally unsuitable environments can be quite harrowing and the work needed to rehabilitate the monkeys is enormous...

Soola · 10/06/2019 17:24

Serious post -