World Gone Mad: the Surrogate Monkey Kids
August 24th 2008 21:03
This has got to be one of the stupidest and unethical things I have ever seen. If you watched 60 Minutes the Sunday before you will know what I’m talking about: surrogate monkey kids.
A woman adopts a monkey, removes all its teeth when it becomes aggressive and dresses it up like a doll. She also wheels it around in a pram like a human baby and takes it to the park for a ride on the swing.
Now I have no problem with the dressing up, pram or swing part of this. The part I object to is the removal of teeth just because all of a sudden the monkey becomes aggressive and bites people. When I saw this, it reminded me of the practice of declawing cats. It seems cruel to tamper with an animal’s defence system just because it is more convenient for humans. It even seems crueller to remove a wild monkey from its natural habitat and try to make it domesticated; only selective breeding over many generations will allow this to happen.
Even more heartbreaking is the fact many of these monkeys are removed from their mothers. According to 60 Minutes, this is done by darting the mothers to sedate them, after which the baby is separated from its mother, both screaming. I find this unethical. Monkeys, like all other sentient beings, aren’t dolls. They need proper care and attention – and that includes living in a proper environment. I feel like saying to the people who engage in this practice that if they want to mother something so badly, go and buy a doll. Don’t buy a wild animal and remove its teeth and fingers just because it’s too dangerous to have an untampered animal. I mean, you wouldn’t keep a pet shark in your backyard pool and expect to swim with it without being bitten so why should it be the same for having a monkey?
For those who missed it, check out the transcript at the link below:
60 Minutes transcript
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