Most Unusual Pet? A Monkey ?

[peter991]

Maybe I need to get away from the Issan village more - but during Songkran, I saw my first monkey. It was tied up at a petrol station, about half way between Khon Kaen and Chum Phae. It was so cute.

I got a picture of the two of us (me and the monkey). I think it was a Rhesus monkey. After that, I asked my Thai other half about getting a couple as pets.

He said they were sold at Chatuchak Market in Bangkok. Going price, I understand is 50,000 baht for a Rhesus and 170,000 baht for an orangutan.

Is it legal to own a pet monkey in Thailand?

Peter

[bina]

DONT EVEN CONSIDER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so cute, just think, it was taken from its mother at early age (and some monkeys need relatives around them to functin normally, not living independantly); most monkeys contract zoonoses from us (chicken pox which can kill them, etc) plus can give us HBV and other nice diseases. monkeys bite, are aggressive, and are not babies nor are they cute and playful.

i've worked with monkeys and hated every minute although my daughter worked with the large monkeys at the jerusalem zoo and loved them. they are dirty when kept in houses and not fed properly, etc.

monkeys are on CITES lists so u can find out abbout the legalities. but never mind the legalities. its a moral question. monkeys live for a very long time, so if u keep one, its for life and they dont ike cchanging owners....they suffer from major psychological problems if not handled properly. etc.

poor thing, tied up at a gas station.

keeping monkeys as pets is cruelty to animals, and damaging to environment.

get a dog, a fish, cat, a goat, a buffalo, anydomesticated animal.

[Nienke]

Hi,

I'm completely with Bina on this.

I've heard of many problems with monkeys as pets. They seem to be cute till approx 1 year of age, after that they become downright dangerous. However, they can become pretty old. So, what are you going to do and how do you ensure its well-being after s/he has reach this age?

An wonderful organisation that can give you quite some info on this is:

The Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand (WAR)

65/1 3rd Floor

Sukhumvit 55

Klongton, Wattana

Bangkok 10110 Thailand

Tel: (66+2) 712-9515, 712-9715

Fax: (66+2) 712-9778

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.warthai.org/

You might even volunteer for them in stead of keeping a pet monkey ...

Nienke

[mosquitoman]

I had a monkey for a while, local hunters killed its mum when she was very small so I adopted her. I did not want to put her in a cage so I let her live with the family in our house. Very cute initially, but a complete handful as she got older. Unfortunately she got run over and died.

The local vet told me that when they reach puberty they become very destructive indeed.

After my first experience I certainly would not have another one

MM

[peter991]

Thanks for the prompt responses everybody. Looks like a cat and some volunteer work for me.

Peter

[bina]

maybe they have a program for caretaking of orphaned or rehab for monkeys before release etc that can give u the satisfaction and also contributing to something good....

but a cat......eeeeeeeek.... from what i can see from sheryl's posts they will rule u house and home.

now a goat, there's a good quiet, friendly affectionate animal that also gives milk.....

just kidding,

GOOD JOB!!!!!

way to go....

.bina

[Tony Clifton]

Just don't buy animals from Chatuchak please. Endangered species are constantly sold there AND the boys in brown get a monthly cut.

[billd766]

Nearly 40 years ago when I was in the Royal Air Force at Tengah in Singapore one of the guys had a honey bear as a pet.

Nice thing it was as long as you didn't make it mad. It used to shrted car tyres with its claws but oddly enough his house never got broken in to.

I don't know what happened when he left but I was single and had to get my dog put down or it would have been abandoned and eventually shot if it went wild and joined a pack.

[MrSnrang]

Have had a few monkeys in the past, pair of marmosets and a squirrel monkey... 40,000 baht each.

Bad idea.

Those, along with my six juvenile crocodiles from the tiger farm, were my most unusual pets.

[Richb2004v2]

Would anyone really consider an orangutan as a pet? That seems pretty crazy and irresponsible. If an Orangutan wasn’t available what would the next option be, I gorilla?

Is it really possible to buy an Orangutan from Jak to Jak? That’s terrible. I’m sure that they aren’t captive bred.

[sbk]

Read this thread before deciding on a monkey for a pet.

[MrSnrang]

My dad has a bonsai shop in jj and was talking about how they are selling Tibetan mastiff puppies for around 200k... I've never heard of Orangutans there at all and neither has my dad and he's well=known and goes to talk with them all the time.

[pattayadave]

have to agree with everyone dont keep one as a pet ! says me !

have a spider monkey with me as i type the lads at work had killed its mother and were in the process of killing it before i intervened i some times wish i had let them eat the pair of them but its not in our nature.

the short is i now have a 9 month old monkey that thinks i'm its dad dont get a momements peace they need looking after 24/7, i'm traveling to freetown (capital of sierra leone ) thursday back to los for three weeks .

have been in touch with a local sanctuary for primates and he thinks he may be able to take it in for a small donation.

the gist of it is i will miss him but i know its not fair for him to be kept in captivity with only human contact.

once again op dont even think about it

[Nignoy]

I hand raised these 3 little buggers!!cute yes, barrel of laughs definitely not , dangerous very!! lots of great memories but lots of heartache too, leave them in the wild folks!!! Nignoy

[Nienke]

I hand raised these 3 little buggers!!cute yes, barrel of laughs definitely not , dangerous very!! lots of great memories but lots of heartache too, leave them in the wild folks!!! Nignoy

For sure they look cuteon the pic (It only gives me pain in the neck when looking at it, though )

Can you tell a little more on how you raised them, how the interaction was, their behavior (development), pro's and con's, etc.

Not that I intend to raise primates, just plain interest.

Nienke

[bina]

nienke

i also have raised monkeys (in captivity there is a problem among certain types that if the young mother doesnt have aunties that are part of the caretaker group, she will abandon her baby; pitz was a squirrel monkey (not sure about english name) hand raised by us after being rejected by his mother. he was carried on our backs, or stomachs, groomed, etc, we tried doing as much as possible to keep the actions similar to others of his type, with the help of tamar from the monkey santuary here but as he matured he became a dangerous male; he was introduced into a young single males group at the jeruslam zoo unfortunately the introduction didnt work out and they bit his testes; he didnt recover.

pancho was a spider monkey that had been raised by hand by a private person and given to us before laws about petting zoos and monkeys came in to effect. he hated women and was very dangerous to deal with apart from one male handler. he excaped twice while with us, attacking women bystanders by biting their faces and necks. he was very intelligent, i had a real fear of him. he caught me twice by his tail, pulling my glasses off, thru his holding cage. he loved human type food and also suffered from steroetype behavior. when we moved him (when i took over our petting zoo i moved all wild animals to large zoos/sanctuaries and deal only with farm animals for the most part) he suffered from malnutrition, and psychological problems due to lack of personal interaction with monkeys or other people. he too was moved to a monkey sanctuary when we moved our zoo and had several tries to re introduce him to general monkey groups which never worked out.

mali was a baboon that had belong to weizmann institute in rehovot; when her professor retired, she was rehomed with us. six years ago, we moved and she had to be placed again and in the end stayed in the ben shemen sanctuary. she was to be moved to czeckia zoo, in the end, her health didnt permit the flight so she has stayed in the shelter ever since. i have claw marks on one arm where she grabbed me once when moving her from a holding cage to a new large home, 16 yrs ago. she loved having her back scratched and was very needy for hands on affection but could not be with other baboons. she was a labratory baboon originally and knew only humans. she could read and use a few hand signals and a computer but suffered from boredom and stereotype behaviors.

my daughter has finished working one year at the big zoo with the larger monkeys. one woman has nursed a baby chimp recently as the mother rejected her. on reintroduction the mother killed her anyway after the keepers used twilight sleep drugs and other methods for reintroduction non of which worked. for the most part, the monkeys are given birth control in this group but apparently the mothers have figured otu how to throw the pill away. most births in captivitiy are planned as there are too many monkeys of certain types in captivity. the latest alws say that smaller zoos must neuter or prevent unwanted births among ganons gibbons lemurs etc.

from all our monkeys that we used to have i learned they are very dangerous; males know when women are menstruating and this causes many attacks or sexual advances that we dont know how to reject the same way a female monkey would (i kid u not!!), they are not predictiable as each has his/her own personality and they are flexible i.e. a donkey always does as a donkey does, a monkey learns new and sometimes wierd behavior patterns and they change with each situation like us. there are no pros only cons. a monkey is a wild animal and should be in the wild or in a proper holding area like a sanctuary built for monkeys. improper child rearing techniques, nutrition etc create long term problems as monkeys live long lives. many monkeys are sensitive to human diseases that with us are childhood problems, for them it kills (chicken pox is one example). the human cold virus is an other problem.

btw, the mother that rejected her baby twice at the big zoo actually cruelly abused her infant first systamatically. she wasnt just an apthathetic mother or one that refused to nurse her baby. she is a repeat abuser and therefore was not meant to get pregnant.

the other thing i can say is monkey shit stinks. i required that my daughter had to strip down before entering my house after cleaning the monkey house.

bina

[Nignoy]

I hand raised these 3 little buggers!!cute yes, barrel of laughs definitely not , dangerous very!! lots of great memories but lots of heartache too, leave them in the wild folks!!! Nignoy

For sure they look cuteon the pic (It only gives me pain in the neck when looking at it, though )

Can you tell a little more on how you raised them, how the interaction was, their behavior (development), pro's and con's, etc.

Not that I intend to raise primates, just plain interest.

Nienke

The terrible 3 were raised together in a nursery room, just like 3 human babies, the mountain gorilla and the orang were both rejected captive born babies from a zoo in southern germany,the bonobo baby was part of a group that were confiscated off belgian animal smugglers, the bonobo was a livewire, and leader of the group, and a bully who would beat the orang relentlessly and steal her bottle if we did not take care, all 3 loved being bathed ,but the bonobo learned how to turn taps on and open doors, nothing was safe !! she loved terrorising my wife, these 3 were only passing ships in my career, I stopped counting at 250 handreared babies ,that range from sugar glider to African Elephant,as to behaviour of those 3, The mountain gorilla went to the Wilhelma in Stuttgart, the Orang went to the Allwetter Zoo in Munster, and bertha the Bonobo went to Professor Hicks in the Kolner Zoo for her breeding program Nignoy

PS this was one of our first australian orphans!! a professional photo courtesy of steve parrish, by the way the koala is the dumbest animal in the world

[Nienke]

Bina and Nignoy,

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I always find it super interesting to listen/read these kind of things. Especially, when it concerns animals and I can learn from it.

Thanks,

Nienke

P.S. I've read about Bonobo's (Frans de Waal, Desmond Morris) but have never seen any in real or on tele or vdo/vcd/dvd. From what I've understood they are to closest primate to people. Closer than the chimp, but because of there paculiar ways of peace making, they hardly come in the news