Combat Pet Monkey Scams on YouTube

This petition appeals to YouTube to ban lucrative pet videos using infant monkeys for the protection of the monkeys, the scheme involves acquiring them under the pretext of caring for them as pets, but abusing them for profit.

Since this scam is flourishing at YouTube, we petition YouTube to do the right thing: upgrade community guidelines in response, Create artificial intelligence that will recognize breeds, create a category which allows clear reporting and instruct reviewers to close the channels on the first offense for the benefit of the truly unfortunate victims of greed that captive baby monkeys are.

These are small monkeys, such as macaques, that are usually illegally obtained and exploited. They are bought or stolen from their mothers who may have been killed and used in hundreds of youtube videos. When the captive babies grow and are not earning keep, the owners trash them and get a new baby. The discarded monkeys are sold again or dumped into a forest if they survive being brutalized, starved, drugged, beaten and kept off camera in conditions that beg contagious diseases.

Abuse channel owners post the most controversial material for views earning maximum profit from Youtube ads. Besides threatening and scolding the "pets", sometimes using physical punishment, they will concoct stories to engage the viewer, such as fake rescue, care videos of injuries questionable in origin. The animals are put in diapers, some for extended times, dressed in baby clothes, forced to walk upright by arm restraint, and carry objects to appear as "mommy's little helper." The channels often have an email address for business and solicit donations for the little monkeys.

YouTube: please do your part to shut down this industry on social media – upgrade and enforce your guidelines. Develop artificial intelligence tools for breed recognition. Besides saving the victims from the often horrible treatment they receive in these videos, sometimes resulting in death and including endangered species, this will support reducing the stress on animal rescue services and wildlife organizations resources, improve working conditions for YouTube reviewers, lessen a demand for them as exotic pets.

It will also appropriately address health concerns being expressed by animal rescue operations internationally that if illegally trafficked, discarded pet monkeys can at some point be carrying contagious viruses that can be transferred to humans such as COVID 19 which is very disturbing and not to be ignored.

Visit macaquesplight.com for more information