Prime Minister invited to meet Kodak, the new Primate Ambassador

Animal Defenders International (ADI) and The Monkey Sanctuary Trust (MST) join forces to save pet primates on International Primate Day, Monday 1st September 2008.

In 2002 Kodak, a small capuchin monkey, was snatched from the wild as baby in South America.  Aged just one year old Kodak was then sold by a dealer in Guyana to a pet trader in Greece, who in turn sold him to an Athens resident as a pet.  But Kodak was one of the luckier monkeys, as his owner realised he could not cope with such a demanding animal. 

This week, Kodak embarks on a new life at The Monkey Sanctuary Trust in Cornwall, after ADI facilitated his move there.  Kodak will enjoy the company of his own kind again. Kodak is 6 years old and could live to be 45 years. 

Kodak will also start a new role as an ADI Primate Ambassador and will today send a special message to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for an end to the keeping of primates as pets.

On 1st September 2008 , MPs and representatives of ADI and MST will visit no.10 Downing Street to deliver a plea to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take action to end the international trade in primates as pets, and also, use the Animal Welfare Act to protect primates.  The team will deliver a card from Kodak and a letter, with a personal invitation to the Prime Minister to meet the new Primate Ambassador in Cornwall.

The Prime Minister will receive a new Parliamentary Briefing, which includes–

• The suffering of primates kept in inappropriate conditions
• The threats to wild populations through the global trade, which is stimulated by lucrative European markets
• The disease risks of keeping these species
• The difficulties that private owners experience when keeping adult animals, that can lead to them giving up the animals, selling them on and causing further suffering.

ADI and MST are dismayed that new rules under the Animal Welfare Act have been delayed and even worse, last year several species monkeys were stripped of what little protection they had under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976.

ADI is releasing video footage and photographs highlighting the suffering of primates in the pet trade in South America, Africa and Asia.  The shocking new evidence shows:

• Monkeys, chained and severely confined, isolated
• A baby monkey being hit in the face with a metal file
• Monkeys being terrorised by a pet dealer holding a snake
• A monkey being thrown from an upstairs window to a trader on a stall below

Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of ADI:  “Monkeys are wild animals and do not make suitable pets.  These are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom and so we can comprehend their suffering perhaps more clearly than any other animals – monkeys being kept as pets will suffer from being kept in tiny cages and lack of contact with their own kind, just as we would.
“Whilst the UK fails to take a stand on this issue, we are condoning an international industry that is often built on violence and deprivation, with animals being dragged screaming from their families and homes.  The Prime Minister has an opportunity to act decisively, to end the suffering in the UK and to send an important animal welfare message around the world.”

Rachel Hevesi of the Monkey Sanctuary Trust:  “Kodak is a sad example of the suffering caused by legal quotas and loopholes that enables the international primate pet trade to thrive. The vast majority of the visitors to the Monkey Sanctuary, are shocked that our government has not yet taken the first step of tackling this issue by ending the primate pet trade in the UK. 
“Kodak needs the companionship of other primates and space and that is what we will try to give him in the coming months.  These animals suffer terribly when isolated from their own species or in unnatural conditions.  They should simply not be kept for the amusement of individuals as pets.  We were promised action on this issue but are still waiting.”