This Rescued Baby Monkey Kept in Poor Care Is an Example of Why Monkeys Should Not Be Kept as Pets
The local RSPCA was informed about a monkey that was being kept as a pet in a house in Essex, England. They were called to check on him, and the condition in which they found the baby monkey was very heart-wrenching.
Named TikTok, the monkey was kept inside a birdcage. He was too small and young to be left alone without his parents.
Monkeys are not the kind of animals that should be kept as pets because the care and environment they require cannot be provided by just anyone, least of all by someone who is not qualified to care for exotic animals. The same was true for TikTok, who was being kept in very poor conditions without proper care.
An inspector of RSPCA, Jack Taylor, said, "Primates are intelligent, sentient, and highly social animals with complex needs that simply cannot be met in a domestic environment."
Fortunately for RSPCA, they were able to secure an agreement that allowed them to take TikTok into their care. Eventually, TikTok was taken in by a shelter for monkeys called Monkey World, which provided him with the care he truly needed.
Alison Cronin, the director of Monkey World, went to collect TikTok personally from the RSPCA.
He was genuinely happy and excited to have Alison bring him to his new family and home. Clydie and Ronnie, the same breed of monkey as the baby, were introduced to TikTok by the rescue.
They hoped that they would become his parents. Since they were both also rescued from a bad situation, the rescue believed they would better adjust to TikTok.
As soon as they were introduced to TikTok, the bond was clearly evident. TikTok jumped excitedly at his mother's call, and Clydie doted on him as well.
Monkey World shared in their press release, "Clydie instantly adopted him as her own, carrying, grooming, and protecting little TikTok."
The rescue soon discovered, after his initial examination, that he was underweight for his age, weighing only 0.2 pounds at 5 to 6 months old. They were confident that he would now receive all the care and love he required from his parents.
The three have become a cute little family, and Clydie and Ronnie are happy to have a son now.
The story of TikTok serves as a lesson on why monkeys should not be kept as pets. Both Monkey World and the RSPCA are working to curb the trend of selling monkeys as pets.
Taylor shared, "TikTok's case perfectly highlights why primates should not be available to the public and why they do not belong in people's homes."
He further added, "This youngster has been wrenched away from his family to be sold as a novelty pet to someone who doesn't know and who hasn't got a hope of being able to give him what he needs. It's a situation that just shouldn't happen."
TikTok is fortunate to have escaped from that place and now has a family. Not many get to have such good luck.
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