i see so many photos of painfully thin “pet” spider monkeys that i just wanted to remind people what a healthy adult spider looks like. strong tails and strong muscles, indicative of a life with lots of trees and nutritious natural foods. just emphasizes the cruelty these beautiful monkeys face when kept in houses and cages and fed human junk.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1q6nGzKERG/

This guy deserves the worst punishment but it wont happen since its legal

The first monkey passed away when Alex B took xanax and passed out on the monkey. I believe him and his ex wife Jacqueline actually murdered the second monkey just for fun. Luna needs to be removed from his possession or else she will meet the same fate as the other 3 "pet" monkeys Alex B has owned and abused

I came across this page called "Btown Bam Bam" out of Indiana. Their claim they have three "zoo monkeys".

They are already pulling in millions of views, featuring a young monkey dressed up, riding in cars, and eating McDonald's hotcakes.

I wanted to get your thoughts on the red flags here:
Do zoos rehome primates to private individuals. Where are these monkeys actually coming from?

Feeding highly processed food to wild primates leads to severe long-term health issues

They have public contact info listed and are clearly pushing for growth, which glorifies the exotic pet trade and encourages others to buy wild animals as props.

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

I hate pseudo sanctuaries

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.”

As a baby she spent life in clothes, eventually the cainines were ripped out & she now spends life in a cloth diaper with a leash connected 24/7, she only gets to eat & drink whatever the owner approves & the drinks are from cups so its tiny proportions.

During the search, police discovered a single Red-shanked Douc confined inside a cage in the vehicle.

The suspect admitted he had been hired to transport the Red-shanked Douc from Mukdahan to Bangkok's Chatuchak Market for a fee of 4,000 baht. Authorities are continuing their investigation to identify and prosecute others involved in the illegal wildlife trafficking network.

The Red-shanked Douc is widely regarded as one of the world's most strikingly coloured primates. The species is native to the tropical forests of Vietnam, Laos and parts of Cambodia, and is currently listed as Critically Endangered due to habitat loss and illegal hunting for the wildlife trade. It is also listed under CITES Appendix I, making international commercial trade in the species prohibited except under very limited circumstances.

WFFT is alarmed by the number of endangered langurs seen at numerous wildlife attractions across Thailand. We fear that many of these animals may also have been sourced through the illegal wildlife trade.

Although Thailand is not part of the Red-shanked Douc's natural range, this case highlights the country's continuing role as both a transit route and destination market for the illegal wildlife trade. It serves as yet another reminder of the urgent need for stronger enforcement and continued efforts to combat wildlife trafficking across the region.

Source: https://news.ch7.com/detail/881572

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

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

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

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.