Just got this alert from Madeline:
I'm one of the many lurkers you have around your blog.
"My Monkey Baby", a new show on TLC, glorifies the keeping of monkeys as children. The show airs on October 4 and chronicles a couple who keep a capuchin as a “pet” but treat the monkey as their daughter. The couple dresses the monkey, who they have named Jessica Marie, in designer clothes, put makeup on her, and buy her children’s toys.
I think it is truly terrible. TLC's programming is mostly trash nowadays but this is a bit over the top - and could increase the number of apes in private hands in the US. Born Free USA already has a post set up about it, and the show's preview video is available in the feminist site Jezebel. I know you have your hands full (and then some) but it would be really cool if you could spread the word out to people that might have the means to prevent this show from becoming a permanent TLC fixture.
You can watch the preview here:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/monkey-babies-couples-treat-adopted-monkid
s-children/story?id=8723105
Please write to http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations and speak out about My Monkey Baby.
You can cut and paste this into your email:
Dear Discovery networks,
I am concerned about your show, My Monkey Baby.
Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.
ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.
Most primates are highly endangered. It is illegal to own, purchase or sell primates in Africa. Unfortunately, an international trade rages in Africa –- including the sale of primates. Hunters shoot mothers and sell their bodies as meat to rich city dwellers who can afford the luxury. They pull babies off the backs of their dead mothers to sell in the markets as pets. However, these pet traders are doing nothing worse than what is done in the United States legally: baby primates are pulled off their mothers’ backs and sold as pets.
Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.
Please remove My Monkey Baby from your programming.
Sincerely,
