The illegal trade in monkeys is a billion-dollar business. A baby gorilla can cost up to $250,000. Much in demand as pets in wealthy homes or as performers in commercial zoos, baby chimpanzees have a price of $12,500. Who the buyers are is just as opaque as in trading people. They are given alcohol and drugs, they are abused, and if they are no longer needed, they are simply thrown away.
The monkeys are also offered in the social networks. On an Instagram account a user offered baby chimpanzees and orangutans in children's clothes, 2 babies, each $7500 for the "special introductory price".
The animals are in great demand in the Gulf States, Southeast Asia and China. Buyers are willing to pay high prices and additional fees to circumvent international controls. And while they are well cared for at a young age, chimpanzees soon become too strong and potentially violent to be kept in a household.
Malnourished and frightened monkeys have been found in covert boxes at border controls in France, Nepal, Thailand, Kuwait and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are seized all over the world. But these are few. Others live in a private zoo, far away from their homeland and their natural way of life.
Little is reported about the trade in monkeys. In contrast to the flourishing business with ivory. But this illegal trade is a terrible global criminal enterprise that catches, sells or kills billions of monkeys of all kinds when they can no longer be sold. The monkeys are live animals. Some are the most vulnerable, intelligent and sensitive animals on earth.
