A 34-year-old mother of two, Erica is a software engineer. Erica purchased a monkey, whom she named Khy, as a pet and, on realizing that she could not give him the life he needed, rehomed him to the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, she shares the details of the realities of keeping a monkey as a pet in the United States.
I found out about this exotic animal auction an hour away from where I lived. We got there early, we walked around and looked at all the animals in the cages. They had giraffes, zebras, all kinds of crazy things. Then I saw a breeder that was holding this little baby monkey that was two or three months old. That was Khy. He was so tiny. He had a little stuffed teddy bear that he was clinging to the entire time. At the time, I thought it was so cute, but looking back, it was just so sad. I remember during the auction it was just one woman and me bidding against each other. Afterwards, it was just a 15-minute talk with the breeder and then we were on our way. And then I was like oh my god, what have I done?
At about 23 months, Khy started getting aggressive towards me, and it got to the point that I was nervous to even go into his room to clean out his cage. As far as actual interactions go, there just wasn’t much, because I was afraid to be around him. He had bitten me three times in one month, and that had not been a thing before that. I really started to panic at that point. I started to reach out to a handful of primate sanctuaries around the country to try to find a good home for him.
I remember right after I found a space for him at the Born Free Sanctuary, going into Khy’s room and being so relieved but just so sad. I went and sat down in his room and let him out of his cage and he came out and cuddled up in my lap and I just started crying because I had finally made plans to find a new home for him and he was being sweet. As I was questioning my decision, I remember a teardrop fell on him and he looked up and attacked my face.I don’t know what I would’ve done if Born Free hadn’t taken him in. Keeping him wasn’t an option, so I don’t know… I feel like I would have [had to have had him killed] because I don’t know how I could have lived with him. If you’re terrified of them at three pounds, imagine what they’re like at 30 pounds.
[Quote and photo via Born Free USA]
Above is Khy, as an adult living at Born Free Primate Sanctuary. He is an energetic young man who is still more interested in people than his monkey neighbors. He requires extra enrichment and medications to reduce his life-long stress. He is also known for Self Injerius Behavior or SIB (also known as self-attacking) this behavior is common in ex-pets. When they are stressed, overwhelmed or understimulated SIB can manifest as attacking ones own feet or hands, biting themselves or throwing themselves as if being attacked. These behaviors can be reduced with extra enrichment, eliminating stressors, and occasionally by medication but cannot be stopped all together.
Khy's favorite foods include melon, corn, avocado and human food such as cereal, pasta etc. He enjoys watching the other monkeys when they get riled up and cows that wander the neighboring fence.
