r/FreeTheMonkeys

Can I ask, what's everyone's thoughts on Jamil with the pigtail macaques?

I haven't looked on his page since JK passed.

Shaki's hormonal swellings are the worst I have seen them. Shakina is grown and has her swelling as well so has reached maturity. They are still chained in a cot together at night and shakina is quite large.

Adik is the long tail he rescued and I was quite taken back by how overweight it is. Every comment is about her big belly or her weight

I know he means well but it seems very dangerous with all the rescue dogs and cats . Adik has a blind kitten he won't let anyone touch and Shaki makes threatening poses and noises at the dogs

mi stavo guardando “l’alba del pianeta delle scimmie” e ho ripensato al fatto che da anni che vorrei poter avere una piccola scimmietta come animale domestico. sono piccole, intelligenti e a differenza di molti animali domestici durano molti più anni e quindi il dolore di poter perdere il piccolo animaletto di compagnia non si crea con loro. ma mi chiedo perché in italia o in generale nell’europa non si possa tenere una scimmia quando in molti stati dell’america e dell’asia dalla mia ricerche si può tenere una scimmietta con o anche senza permesso da enti o stati. l’unica risposta che riesco a darmi da sola è che la nostra posizione geografica non sia benevola per loro, ma essendo razze create per la sopravvivenza in casa e “a mano” allora mi viene un altro dubbio. per chiunque dica che le scimmie puzzano e cagano in giro, vi dico che anche i neonati lo fanno, e come insegnate a loro crescendo di non farlo anche loro possono imparare, discendiamo dalla scimmie, svegliatevi.

I don’t think this is cute or silly or playful. I honestly don’t know very much about monkeys but I do know a bit and I can tell they got this monkey way too young and are too rough with him. They don’t ever seem to have any enrichment for him, it’s just trying to cuddle with him, carry him around as an accessory and then peel his arms and tail off of them and saying “that’s enough.”

Unethical pet monkey owner's typical justification of exploitation and abuse

When an exotic pet influencer attempts to defend their platform by saying, "We make videos that make people happy and touch lives," they are committing a massive logical and ethical fallacy.

1. The Audience is Not the Benchmark for Welfare

The audience is the benchmark for welfare according to unethical pet primate owners

An animal's physical and psychological health is measured by science, biology, and behavior, most definitely not by how many views, likes, or happy comments a video gets.

• The Reality: A viewer sitting at home feeling "touched" by a video has zero impact on the daily, grueling reality of a primate trapped in a cage and forced to act like surrogate human babies and children.
• The Illusion: Using the audience's emotional satisfaction as a metric for success and animal welfare is a deliberate redirection by unethical owners. It asks you to look at all the happy and gushing emotive in the comments section, so you don't look at the abnormal pacing, self-harming, or deeply traumatized animal on the screen.

2. Playing "Therapist" is a Manipulation Tactic

https://preview.redd.it/tjvyvtjb6sah1.png?width=945&format=png&auto=webp&s=83edccddbc5c83f04358a9f4c3d11836654397a4

Monkeys are incredibly expensive and labor-intensive to keep. To fund this lifestyle, "monkey influencers" need a loyal, defensive fanbase.

• By bragging to livestream audiences that they are an empathetic ear or a makeshift therapist for viewers with personal problems, the owner isn't practicing good animal husbandry at all, what he is doing is building a cult of personality.
• When a creator makes his followers feel heard, those followers become fiercely protective of him. They will blindly defend him against legitimate allegations of abuse because they confuse his kindness to them with his treatment of his animals.
• Listening to a fan's problems does absolutely nothing to alleviate the profound mental suffering of captive primates, such as a 16-year-old primate locked in a cage 24/7

3. "We've Done This for 16 Years" is an Admission, Not a Defense

https://preview.redd.it/wo1g4rvn6sah1.png?width=1904&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9ac06cad2d5eca6e12df2fb11c3841d66f47f29

Saying things like people "grew up watching this monkey"(since childhood) is actually a tragic confession.

• Primates are highly intelligent, intensely social, and emotionally complex wild animals. They evolved to live in vast, dynamic family structures in wide open nature spaces, not as static entertainment props.
• If a monkey has spent the last four years mostly caged and exhibiting severe psychological distress (stereotypic behaviors like pacing, rocking, or self-biting), those 16 or so years aren't a badge of honor. It means the animal has endured a 16-year life sentence, culminating in a mental breakdown once they grew too large, strong, and dangerous to be handled like a toy.

The Historical Precedent: Exploitation Wrapped in "Joy"

History is full of industries that brought immense "joy" to millions of people while inflicting unimaginable horror behind the scenes. Bringing people happiness has never been a baseline for ethics.

https://preview.redd.it/jsqw2ct37sah1.png?width=1230&format=png&auto=webp&s=8339c357d9cd5ca22ded68520944fcd23f38ebfe

• The Traditional Circus: For over a century, families flocked to circuses, completely enchanted by dancing elephants and leaping tigers. These circuses and animals brought "joy" to generations of children. But behind the curtain lay bullhooks, chains, severe confinement, and broken spirits. The audience's happiness didn't make the abuse ethical.

https://preview.redd.it/3q8un8c67sah1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=512b2c2222c3fc09e97def4027f1c19aeb1f32a4

• Marine Parks (SeaWorld): For decades, seeing killer whales perform tricks brought pure awe and happiness to millions. But as the world later learned, those whales were suffering from extreme psychosis, broken teeth from chewing on concrete tanks, and drastically shortened lifespans.

https://preview.redd.it/4nzslu387sah1.png?width=1471&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf90bc1be6415cc268549bd9349b9c278faf6af1

• The "Tiger King" Phenomenon: Roadside zoos have always used the excuse of "education" and "connecting people with wildlife." In reality, it is a churn-and-burn industry of cub petting where animals are discarded the moment they grow past the profitable, cute phase.

The Takeaway

Bringing joy to humans at the expense of a wild animal’s sanity is not ethical whatsoever, it is narcissistic exploitation.

If an owner's primary defense of their pet care is how much the human audience benefits, they have already admitted that the animal's welfare is secondary. A true advocate or ethical caregiver focuses entirely on what the animal needs, even if it means turning the cameras off and giving them a life of privacy and dignity in an accredited sanctuary.

I don’t care how wonderful someone is or how much they love primates, I don’t even always doubt that love. Often times it’s genuine. But putting them in diapers and running them around your house and claiming not having a life due to this, is all for the show and the money it brings on social media. Those doing that are using them for fame. It’s sickening and causes true primate advocates to doubt this love. Love them enough to give them what they deserve. Even if they can’t always go back in the wild, one can at least try to give them a more natural lifestyle. Those TRUE & LEGIT sanctuaries / refugees that don’t dress them in clothes and parade them around their house for social media lives & fame are the real MVP’s that do the hard work for the love of the primate. They deserve to be supported, not these people using their primates for their social media and TT battles.
A 501c3 does NOT constitute a legit/true sanctuary/refugee. I recently tested the theory and found it very easy to become a 501c3. Anyone can become a nonprofit.