Last month, a monkey was surrendered by its owner in Lexington.
The long-tailed macaque, Ted, was being kept as a pet before he became too much for his owners to handle.
After hearing Ted’s story, LEX 18 Investigates sought to learn more about what wild pets are found in Kentucky, and what kinds of problems they can cause.
Wild pets, both exotic and native, are largely prohibited by Kentucky law. But the sale and ownership of wild pets isn’t illegal everywhere in the country.
That doesn’t stop exotic and wild pets from winding up in Kentucky, said Eileen Dallaire, the executive director of the Primate Rescue Center.
“There is a robust network of illegal pet trading,” Dallaire said. “So people find a way, and too, a lot of people are just unaware of what the laws are. So they find ads and find monkeys and breeders and bring them into the state, don’t do their research.”
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife conservation officer James Brace said that illegal exotic pets are reported in central Kentucky about once a year, and that illegal native wild pets are reported far more often.
Of the exotic pets reported in the state, Brace said one type is more common than all the rest – primates.
Primates as pets
The Primate Rescue Center is a quiet sanctuary nestled in central Kentucky that gives chimps and monkeys a safe place to live out their days. The primates that end up there are unable to return to the wild because they’ve been kept as pets or held in laboratories.
“We wish we didn’t have to exist as an organization, that there wasn’t a need for organizations like us,” Dallaire said. “However, where there still are states that have very loose laws when it comes to owning primates privately, then there just has to be places like us.”
In the wild, young primates would receive 24/7 attention from their mothers, often physically holding onto their mothers all day, Dallaire said. Even a well-intentioned person would not be able to give a baby monkey or chimp the care it needs in a human home, she said.
“As similar as they are to us, we just can’t provide them everything that they need to thrive and be the individuals that they’re meant to be,” Dallaire said.
The lack of socialization with their own kind can lead to problems when the primates grow up, Dallaire said.
“As that baby monkey little by little doesn’t have those needs met, they’re experiencing those small traumas day after day after day,” Dallaire said. “And that builds up over time and they develop behaviors and emotional trauma from that and as they grow up, they develop their own personalities. Whether that’s potentially more aggressive personalities and they start to maybe lash out, they bite.”
Sometimes primates bite not out of aggression, but because it’s one of the ways they communicate in the wild, Dallaire said. But in a human home, those interactions can be a challenge.
“These challenges not only pose a risk for the people inside the home, but for the surrounding communities,” Dallaire said. “These primates can escape homes and potentially harm other animals or children in the surrounding community.”
The Primate Rescue Center is donation-funded and currently cares for more than 40 primates.
The Primate Rescue Center has cared for Ted, the long-tailed macaque surrendered in Lexington, since he was surrendered. On Monday, he started his move to his new home at a sanctuary in Texas.
Native wildlife as pets
Most wildlife native to Kentucky are also prohibited as pets. It’s a rule that gets broken a lot in the spring – baby season.
“Some people can’t resist taking that fawn up, you know, when it’s got those white dots on it, they want to bring it in,” Brace said. “They think the momma’s gone, or something may have happened to the mom.”
It’s possible to be trained as a wildlife rehabber in Kentucky, but without the training it is difficult for people to meet the animals’ needs and prepare them for life in the wild.
Kentucky state wildlife veterinarian Dr. Christine Casey said that being raised in captivity causes problems for animals that are later released, and for those that are kept as pets after they grow up.
Being raised by people can cause wild pets to be more familiar with humans. If that animal approaches humans they see out in the wild, that human will likely fear the animal.
“You can raise them from a baby but as they get older they want to explore, they want to be in the environment,” Casey said. “What happens when it breaks out, you know?”
Exotic pets and the environment
In addition to the other problems that can come with having wildlife as pets, bringing exotic pets into the state can jeopardize native wildlife.
“When you take something from a different area and it can bring parasites into a new area, you’re potentially releasing that into the environment,” Casey said. “And creating a whole new population that’s going to be exposed to it and creating an endemic situation here.”
Exotic pets don’t only include animals like primates and big cats – rabbits and smaller animals from other states and countries can bring their own hazards.
In the southwestern United States, a disease called rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus is spreading, Casey said. It’s highly fatal to rabbits, and efforts are being made to stop it from getting into Kentucky.
Laws limiting the transportation and ownership of wild animals in the state are in place to protect the wildlife in the state, Brace said.
“Just trying to keep Kentucky, Kentucky, basically, and making sure we don’t have invasive species and things like that come through,” Brace said. “Making sure we keep what we have, making sure that we’re conserving what we do have now and for future generations.”
Dallaire said that there are better ways to appreciate wildlife than trying to own wild animals as pets.
“Try to push your love for them by supporting conservation efforts and supporting their life as it’s meant to be and not trying to fit them into the life that you think they should have,” Dallaire said.
