The first rule of the Monkey Club is…
Smuggled spider monkeys turned social media stars, paraded in human hats and clothing by their Mexican owners – prompting condemnation from animal rights groups.
Exotic pets have long been associated with drug lords, known for flaunting their wealth in extravagant ways, in Central and South America.
But now the trend is catching the attention of anyone in Mexico’s wealthy ranks, leading to whole Monkey Clubs popping up all over the country.
A video posted to TikTok by Club Monkey Culiacan – based in Sinaloa, a state known for its ties to drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman – shows the 19-pound spider monkey dancing and playing in disheveled clothing.
One video shows a female spider monkey dressed in pink wrestling with her brother, wearing green shorts with suspenders.
Another video shows a monkey at an extravagant birthday party with a live band, an elaborate balloon display and a horse – all thrown in for a primate friend.
Exotic pet ownership is a growing trend in the cartel stronghold of Culiacan, Mexico. The bbmonogohan/Tiktok cartel has popularized exotic pet ownership in Culiacan, according to a report. ClubMonkeyCuliacan/Instagram
A TikTok video for a spider monkey’s one-year birthday party, named Kira Sophia as its owner, has gone viral with over two million views.
The animal, illegal to keep as a pet, was smuggled from the forest far to the south.
And, owning it has become a status symbol.
“A lot of people here have it. It’s stylish. It says: ‘I have the money to have a monkey,’ 34-year-old florist Zulma Ayala told The Los Angeles Times, which investigated the practice in Culiacan.
Spider monkeys aren’t the only wild animals trending in this city, home to some of Mexico’s richest people.
Wild animals are not meant to be in captivity, said Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA. AP
The trend — immortalized in Scarface with Tony Montana’s pet tiger and fueled by stories of Pablo Escobar’s famous menagerie, complete with zebras, giraffes, hippos and elephants — has caught on among cartel leaders, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A recent US indictment accused the sons of El Chapo – currently serving a life sentence in a federal prison in the US for his crimes – of feeding their enemies “dead or alive” to tigers.
By now the trend had spread far beyond the cartels. In another popular social media video, a girl walks a pet tiger on a leash on a public road in the middle of the day.
A video also shows a tiger sticking its head out of a car.
Animal rights groups such as Born Free USA strongly condemn the ownership of exotic pets.
“I can’t imagine wearing a tutu and being tied up on a leash feels good to an animal whose whole instinct is to be free in the wild,” Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA, told The Post.
The Mexican government specifically bans the ownership of spider monkeys because the native species is highly endangered, but other exotic animals, such as lions, tigers and bears, are allowed.
After being raised in captivity, wild animals cannot survive in the wild, Grimes said. bbmonogohan/Tiktok
Mexican law stipulates that for an exotic animal to be legally owned, the animal must be born in captivity, safely confined and treated with respect. But the lack of inspectors resulted in lax enforcement, according to the LA Times report.
Ernesto Zazueta, director of the Ostok Sanctuary on the outskirts of Culiacan, told a Los Angeles-based newspaper that the sanctuary was caring for a tiger that had been shot two to three times in the face and shoulder during the fighting. The sanctuary also houses leftover hippos from Pablo Escobar’s famous zoo.
Grimes said moving to a sanctuary is the best of several bad options for wild animals that have been kept in captivity.
“They can have a better life in a shelter, but it’s certainly not what they deserve,” Grimes said.
Grimes said in order to domesticate most animals, they have to be taken from their mothers at a very early age, which causes permanent physical and emotional trauma to the animals.
“It becomes a public safety hazard,” Grimes said.
Even the monkey club members noticed this.
The group said in a TikTok post that monkeys will “express” themselves by biting, scratching and exhibiting other aggressive behaviors in the first few months of ownership.
“They are forced to live an unnatural life, so they will act. I have to wonder, how do those people motivate that behavior? Is it through punishment, by punishing the animal so that they learn that if they bite and scratch they will get hurt? This puts the animal under more pressure because they have to act in an unnatural way,” Grimes said.
“They should not be kept as pets,” Grimes added.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
