A bill to stop interstate traffic of primates

Via Mark Kleiman, I found Hilzoy promoting a bill to stop the interstate traffic of primates as pets (but still allowing it for some other reasons). Read Hilzoy for the details, she's very convincing.

The point I would add is that I am very concerned about the morality of treating highly intelligent animals like apes as things to be used solely for our benefit. I'm not sure where monkeys fit on the moral spectrum, but we can also make a societal decision that it's to our benefit not to mistreat animals, and monkeys are likely to be mistreated.

And some monkeys seem to even recognize themselves in mirrors, implying some level of self-consciousness. If we know an animal can recognize its own existence, I'm concerned about treating it as a piece of meat.


key: science, ape, politics