If you’ve been dreaming about having a monkey around the house, you’d better get one today. Carrie Jung of Phoenix’s KJZZ reports:
Keeping primates, like baboons and other monkeys, as pets will be illegal in Arizona starting Saturday. The regulation was recently passed by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.
Officials say the main reason was a concern over human health and safety.
Good news: If you already have a chimps or other sub-human primates around the house before Saturday, you get to keep ’em.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.
From reading and watching about animal behavior and abilities, I’d rather deal with a full-sized leopard or timber wolf than an adult baboon or chimpanzee; and I would feel that neighbors and children were safer with the former around–even if escaped.