Tuesday, October 6, 2009

On Wild Animals in Captivity

Yesterday I read about the new TLC show My Monkey Baby on another blog, and frankly the show sounded hilarious. People with monkeys who treat them as though they are children. Funny on the one hand, batshit crazy on the other. I had the pleasure (?) of watching this show yesterday, and oh my god. It is quite possibly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen on television. Ever. In my life. And I'm counting all future programming in that. One part showed a lady putting makeup on her monkey, because the monkey apparently likes it. Does she? Did she tell you that, crazy lady? Does she also like wearing that mini wedding dress? My word.

These people are clearly delusional, and while I am sad for these people, my inner animal activist is outraged for these poor monkeys. And at TLC for putting such crap on the air, and probably encouraging people that buying a pet monkey is a good thing to do. Maybe I'll adopt a monkey and get my own show. Maybe I'll adopt a giant fucking hippopotamus and keep him in my bathtub, even better! It was bad enough they saddled the world with Jon and Kate, but now this? TLC, the learning channel? Please change your name.



I just, I don't get the need some people have to have wild animals for pets. Seriously. The other day I read an article about a woman who was killed by her pet bear when she went in to clean his cage. HER PET BEAR? It's tragic no doubt, but come on, why do you have a feckin bear as a pet to begin with? Get a dog, get a cat, get a turtle, but how about not getting one of the deadliest animals on earth? How it is in any way a pet, and not a sideshow? Do you walk your pet bear? Do you play fetch in the backyard? No. You keep him locked in a cement cell where he probably was slowly going insane. That is not a pet.

And remember the story from about a year ago about the lady that got attacked by her neighbours 200 pound chimp? Again...why does someone have a giant chimp who clearly belongs ummm not in a house as a pet? The chimp attacks the owners neighbour, and then the chimp ends up getting shot by the police. This completely boggles my mind. These animals are not meant to be pets; they are dangerous and aggressive. (don't click on that if you get queasy easily). They belong in the wild with other primates.

Apparently 15000 people in the United States alone have monkey's for pets, most of them buying them when they were babies. a) What happened to all the mothers of these little monkeys, and b) could you possibly use that $5000 you paid for your pet monkey for something constructive that will benefit society in some way and not make you appear mentally unstable. c) it's a monkey, it is not a child. As much as I love all my shelter dogs, I know that all they will ever be are dogs, and thus have to be treated as such.

I can only hope this show will open up people's eyes to the issue of having wild animals as pets. I am hoping people will become duly outraged by this, and act accordingly. Click here for more info. The crazy needs to stop.

3 comments:

Carissajaded said...

Ok wait wait wait. hold the phone.I thought it was illegal to own monkeys in the US? I could have been owning a monkey this whole time!?

I wouldn't dress it up or anything. I would just want it to go fetch things for me.

I have to watch this show.

Erin said...

I heard about that show, but I didn't watch it. I can't watch stuff like that or that show with the little girls in pageants. It's all just so disturbing.

My BFF is paralyzed from the chest down and applied for a service monkey, but she wasn't approved because she has a cat. I think it would be fine to have a monkey in this sense, but people dressing them up and pretending they're children? Psycho.

Laura&Chris said...

hey! found you on 20SB!

While flicking the channels the other night, I came across this show. I think I watched the first 15-20 minutes and then had to turn it off. I couldn't believe how disturbing that was!! Those people are nuts.

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