Animal Defenders International
My Mate's a Primate
My Mate's a Primate: Introduction (1)
22 May 2006
Introduction My Mate’s a Primate In this report Animal Defenders International (ADI) highlights the crisis facing the other primates with whom we share our planet. We examine the relationship between...
My Mate's a Primate: Introduction (2)
22 May 2006
The other primate species will regret forever the day that the relatives came calling.... As we lounge on our expensive hardwood furniture, the life flickers out of the forest from which it was taken. It...
My Mate's a Primate: Meet the relatives (1)
22 May 2006
Meet the relatives Most nonhuman primate species share more than 90% of their DNA with humans (Homo sapiens) (2). The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) DNA sequence differs from ours by 1-1.5% (8,9), whilst...
My Mate's a Primate: Meet the relatives (2)
22 May 2006
Intelligence Wild chimpanzees have been observed breaking twigs from trees and stripping away the leaves to create a tool in order to feed on termites (27). They learn by observing each other in terms...
My Mate's a Primate: Meet the relatives (3)
22 May 2006
Communication Vervet monkeys can communicate symbolically, and have different alarm calls for different types of predators which indicate whether to flee along the ground or up a tree; these sounds...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (1)
22 May 2006
Bushmeat The consumption of wildlife is now the greatest threat to the great apes and some monkey species Introduction In forests throughout Central and West Africa and Amazonia (as well as Asia),...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (2)
22 May 2006
Changes: Logging, trade and roads Logging is an economically important land use throughout West and Central Africa, and is now a major threat to wildlife. After oil and minerals, logging typically provides...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (3)
22 May 2006
Vulnerable Species Medium (1-5kg) and large (>5kg) primates are particularly vulnerable to hunting because they produce sufficient meat to offset the cost of the bullet. The smaller monkeys are usually...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (4)
22 May 2006
Culture and Socioeconomics In Africa, an army of commercial bushmeat hunters supported by the timber industry infrastructure will illegally shoot and butcher more than two billion dollars worth of wildlife...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (5)
22 May 2006
Health and Disease The risks to humans involved in the trade and consumption of meat need to be considered. There appear to be definite risks of eating apes due to the possibility of transmission of...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (6)
22 May 2006
Conclusions There is no doubt that this situation is desperate and that steps must be taken if we are not to see the great apes eaten off the face of the earth, with other rare species being gobbled...
My Mate's a Primate: Bushmeat (7)
22 May 2006
The situation in South America differs from Africa due to the lack of major conflicts and relative economic growth. Statistics show that generally as income increases, demand for bushmeat falls (45). A...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (1)
22 May 2006
Entertainers Performing primates in entertainment: circuses, television, films, advertising Introduction Worldwide, many different primate species are used in entertainment. This includes advertising,...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (2)
22 May 2006
Sources of animals Performing animal suppliers and circus owners obtain their animals from a variety of sources; from safari parks and zoos, from international animal dealers, by buying and selling...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (3)
22 May 2006
CITES and circus animals The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is an international treaty with over 160 member countries; it controls trade in endangered species by means...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (4)
22 May 2006
Husbandry: travelling circuses Circus animals spend almost their entire lives on the road, moving from one makeshift encampment to another. When the touring season ends they will go back to their permanent...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (5)
22 May 2006
Husbandry: permanent quarters ADI has studied the use of animals in circuses for over a decade. We have found that when circuses are off season the animals go back to the permanent (winter) quarters...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (6)
22 May 2006
At Circo Nevada in Spain, ADI was filming when a baboon tied to a peg by a chain suddenly lunged into a group and bit a child; the injury could undoubtedly have been serious. At Mary Chipperfield Promotions...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (7)
22 May 2006
Training Our studies have drawn us to the conclusion that when animals are being made to perform manoeuvres on demand, whether in groups or individually, and when they are often cared for by relatively...
My Mate's a Primate: Entertainers (8)
22 May 2006
The trial of Mary Chipperfield in 1999 remains significant because it is the only occasion animal trainers have admitted what chimpanzee training actually entails, under oath. When the court was shown...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (1)
22 May 2006
Pets Snatched from their own kind to act as human companions Introduction Primates are the victims of a cruel trade that is experiencing a resurgence: he exotic pet trade is on the increase and...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (2)
22 May 2006
A Global Trade Trafficking in rare and exotic animals has become a huge global business, valued at $12 billion a year (8). Europe is one of the world’s largest markets for wildlife and wildlife products,...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (3)
22 May 2006
The United States has a much more vigorous trade in pet monkeys than the UK. The source of some pet monkeys is the wild. Animal dealers have been caught smuggling monkeys across the long and porous Mexico-...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (4)
22 May 2006
Internet The internet has greatly facilitated the interstate sale of monkeys in the USA. All types of primate species can be obtained via the internet with no need to show whether or not one is capable...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (5)
22 May 2006
A lifetime’s commitment Marmosets and tamarins may live for 25- 30 years; chimpanzees and baboons can live for up to 40 years (31). Few people realise the financial and time commitment that they are...
My Mate's a Primate: Pets (6)
22 May 2006
Diet and disease Every species of monkey or ape has its own particular specialised dietary requirements, be they fruit eaters, leaf eaters or sap extractors, and specialised knowledge is needed for...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (1)
19 May 2006
Research tools The use of primates in experiments Introduction Throughout the world primates are used in a variety of laboratory procedures including development and testing of drugs and vaccines,...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (2)
19 May 2006
Species The most commonly used laboratory primates today are macaques, marmosets, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys, spider monkeys, and capuchins. Other species are used from time to time and...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (3)
19 May 2006
Public disquiet has resulted in more detailed guidelines for primates in the government’s Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures (COP) than for any other species...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (4)
19 May 2006
Husbandry Whatever the source of laboratory primates, they remain wild animals with the concomitant need for the companionship of their own kind and for a varied and stimulating environment. Their high...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (5)
19 May 2006
Experiments on primates The use of primates in scientific and medical experiments ignores not only the important differences between humans and other primates at the physiological and cellular level...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (6)
19 May 2006
Such research on primates is fundamentally flawed, for the following reasons:- Primates, despite their evolutionary closeness to us, are distinct from us in the way they express genes in the brain ('expression'...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (7)
19 May 2006
Some primate species differences Non-human primates are distinct from us in the way they express genes in the brain. There are even big differences in gene expression between humans and chimps, although...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (8)
19 May 2006
Challenging ‘need’ Animal experiments like to claim to be at the forefront of medical and scientific advancement. However, it is estimated that 98% or more of medical research in the UK does not involve...
My Mate's a Primate: Research tools (9)
19 May 2006
Conclusions There is no doubt primates suffer severely in research – it is the most brutal and systematic abuse that these highly developed relatives of human beings endure. That it is the domain of...
My Mate's a Primate: References (1)
19 May 2006
My Mate’s a Primate: References Meet the relatives (1) Bernacky BJ, Gibson SV, Keeling ME, and Abee CR (2002) Nonhuman Primates. In: James G. Fox JG, Anderson LC, Loew FM, Quimby FW (ed.) Laboratory...
My Mate's a Primate: References (2)
19 May 2006
Bushmeat (1) Fa, J.E. (2004) Prime meat or primates? The impact of the bushmeat trade on primates in African moist forests. Primate Society of Great Britain Winter Meeting (2) Fa, J.E., C.A. Peres...
My Mate's a Primate: References (3)
19 May 2006
Entertainers (1) ADI, observations, Spain, 2003 & 2004. (2) ADI, observations, Chile, 2003 (3) ADI, observations, New Zealand, 2004 & 2005 (4) Portman Group, Drunken Monkey advertisement, 2004 (5)...
My Mate's a Primate: References (4)
19 May 2006
Pets (1) RSPCA report (2004) Handle with Care: A look at the exotic animal pet trade (2) The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, minutes of meeting, Tuesday 3rd June, 2004, Primate Pet...
My Mate's a Primate: References (5)
19 May 2006
Research Tools (1) ADI, Animal Experiments at Inveresk, 2005 (2) HMSO / Stationery Office, Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, 1990-2001 (3) The Stationery Office, Statistics of...
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