From 6 April 2026, keeping primates as pets in the UK will no longer be possible, at least in practice. The new measures signed by the government introduce a licensing system with welfare standards comparable to those of zoos, effectively making private detention impossible. A turning point involving up to 5,000 animals, according to official estimates.
The declared objective: more protection
The British government claims the reform as a decisive step towards improving animal welfare. Primates are intelligent, social and complex animals whose needs cannot be met in a domestic environment. Animal Welfare Minister Lord Douglas-Miller stressed that those who do not comply with the new criteria will risk unlimited fines or even imprisonment and the removal of animals which may be seized. A position also supported by the RSPCA, according to which ensuring adequate care for monkeys and other primates in the home is “practically impossible”.
Data that is worrying
Yet, a few weeks after the law came into force, obvious critical issues emerge. According to the Born Free organisation, only three license applications have been submitted across England in almost a year. A negligible number compared to the actual spread of the phenomenon, which risks leaving hundreds of animals illegally with direct consequences on their future. The problem is not only regulatory, but structural: sanctuaries and recovery centers are already at their limits, and there is a lack of concrete plans to welcome the seized animals.
The risk of only formal protection
Here the strongest contradiction arises. If on the one hand it is right to say that primates should not live in domestic captivity, on the other hand a law that does not provide realistic solutions risks turning into an indirect condemnation for the animals it seeks to protect, up to the extreme hypothesis of euthanasia.
To be against this measure, such as it is, is not to defend captivity. It means asking for a responsible transition, based on information, graduality and real investments. Primates should be neither pets nor collateral victims of an incomplete law. True protection comes from recognizing that they are wild animals, born to live free, not simply “better kept”.
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