Captured wild animals are exploited and abused for social media content
CAMBODIA – Animal protection nonprofits Lady Freethinker and Action for Primates are calling on the Cambodian government to take action following an investigation that has uncovered the abusive and cruel reality behind Cambodia-based “pet” baby monkey content popular on social media platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook.
Thousands of videos, amassing hundreds of millions of views, deceptively show the monkeys as “loved” pets, clothed in colorful outfits while “dancing,” spinning in circles, and playing with toys, all of which are unnatural stunts that the monkeys have been forced to perform. In the background their seemingly “loving” owners talk to them softly, smile, or laugh. Outside of the well-lit and glamorous backgrounds portrayed in the social media clips, some Cambodia-based content creators keep these monkeys in cramped and barren wire cages and feed them junk food including candy.
“What happens behind the scenes of these seemingly ‘cute’ infant monkey videos is much darker than viewers realize,” said Nina Jackel, Founder and President of Lady Freethinker. “These babies are ripped from their mothers and suffer cruel and illegal captivity. We urge the public not to watch or share this content and are calling on the Cambodian government to take action.”
“Forcibly removing and depriving infant monkeys of their mothers and raising them in captivity in unnatural conditions is extremely cruel and will result in abnormal behavior and development leading to severe psychological and physical problems. We urge the authorities to rescue these abused captive monkeys, and ensure they are sent to a reputable sanctuary,” said AFP Co-founder Sarah Kite.
Investigators met with several of the popular content creators in Cambodia. There they witnessed first-hand the inhumane living conditions of the monkeys, including five young monkeys kept in a wire cage with a wire floor without any enrichment activities or platforms, leaving the monkeys with no opportunities to engage in natural behaviors. At one site, three macaques were kept in a barren wire cage in a filthy area of the residence, with the owner claiming they were fed milk, fruit, jelly, and candy.Not all videos posted by these channels hide behind the façade of cute animals and happy owners. Some show shocking behavior used to “discipline” monkeys, like holding a macaque over a balcony and biting, hitting, and knocking the monkeys over. One channel’s disturbing uploads include a highly distressed infant macaque cruelly dumped into a chair and filmed crying for the camera and a macaque whose arms were deliberately confined in tight clothing so that the monkey was forced to walk upright. Others are forced into abnormal and stressful situations in which their clear distress, including screaming and crying, is filmed and posted online for “entertainment.” Some of the owners filmed videos in which they touched or focused their cameras on the genitals of the macaques.
A report published by the Asia for Animals Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) in 2021 illustrates the widespread and escalating issue of animal cruelty content on social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. The report included 5,480 videos with 5,347,809,262 views. When it was possible to identify where the videos originated from, Cambodia was listed sixth out of 33 countries for content sources by volume.
It is illegal to own macaques and most other wild animals as pets in Cambodia. This practice continues, however, due to a lack of law enforcement and the easy availability of wild monkeys. They are stolen from their mothers in the forests of Cambodia by traffickers and sold to people who have little or no knowledge of animal welfare. Investigators found that these monkeys exhibited coping mechanisms associated with stress, separation, and loss.There are conservation concerns regarding the long-tailed and northern pig-tailed macaques, the main species kept as ”pets” in Cambodia. The species are protected under Appendix II in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Their status was recently increased to ‘Vulnerable’ with a decreasing population trend by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species, the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.
Keeping wild animals as “pets” poses not just a danger to the animals themselves but to humans as well. As monkeys reach sexual maturity, they can become aggressive and attack people, resulting in serious injuries. Contact with wild monkeys – especially under conditions where animals are highly stressed – can lead to cross-species transmission of various infectious microorganisms, resulting in zoonotic diseases.
A petition from Lady Freethinker and Action for Primates calls on Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) Prime Minister Hun Sen; Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) Minister Veng Sakhon; and Minister of Environment H.E. Say Samal to remove captive monkeys to a sanctuary and take action against those people who are subjecting monkeys to abuse and cruelty. The groups have also sent a letter to Cambodian authorities with details of the channel owners, urging officials to take action.
A video produced by Lady Freethinker and Action for Primates highlights the disturbing reality behind this content. Images of the monkeys and their living conditions can be found here.
About Lady Freethinker:
Founded in 2013 by Nina Jackel, LFT is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing and stopping the suffering of animals, humans and planet. Through its undercover investigations, news reporting, and petitions, LFT brings to light suffering that may otherwise go ignored and works toward lasting, systemic change. LFT also provides direct aid to animal rescue. Visit the LFT website at https://ladyfreethinker.org/
About Action for Primates:
Action for Primates (AFP) is a UK-based project that campaigns on behalf of non-human primates globally. AFP raises awareness about the plight of and threats to non-human primates around the world and works to end their exploitation, whether in captivity or in the wild. Visit the AFP website: https://actionforprimates.org
This is so good to hear!! Too many monkeys are being abused in the name of entertainment. It is so unkind and cruel to defenceless creatures who live a horrible life with their captures – often not surviving!
Well done and good luck catching them all!!
Facebook has become a cesspool of animal abuse. Facebooks arrogant, cruel policies helped me make the easy decision to leave the platform. Having reported over 100 cruel rescues, blatant sexual abuse of young macaques, child abuse where young monkeys are encouraged to steal food to make young human children wail in despair, I have had it with Facebook. I have experienced the same as another poster on this site-Facebook punishes ME, not the abusers! Facebook just banned me from posting for the 4th time, for their ridiculous policies! They actively flaunt their own “community standards “. Facebook needs to be sued for animal cruelty! YouTube has removed many videos I have reported. Facebook has not removed a single one, instead, bans me from using the platform! Animals don’t have a chance with Facebook abuses. I will join any Facebook lawsuits. I look forward to having Facebook punisher for promoting animal and child abuse!
I was also put in facebook jail for arguing over the monkey abuse because i am angry.. for a month now they’ve had a video up in one of the abused monkey sites of a little monkeys legs are chopped off he’s still alive. And now yesterday when I checked there’s another one up of a poor little baby that they kill, they shove in a jar and tied to a fan while it’s spinning around it’s horrible. I reported on every name of every child I have, and have got everybody I know to report to Facebook and finally they put a warning up but still kept the video, it is absolutely 100% undeniably animal abuse in its cruelest form and Facebook is leaving it for everybody to see. I so irritated with facebook. I have had my Facebook account for 15 years every picture of my children is up on it I’m in danger of now losing my Facebook account I have over 400 pictures of my children on here that I’m trying to figure out how to back up in case they do remove my page, all over the monkey abuse. I’m not allowed to speak my mind to these people but they’re allowed to keep this vile cruel animal abuse up. Something’s not right.
Thank you I’ve been in Facebook jail many times over baby monkeys the one time calling mother monkey a bitch because she killed baby Kevin. As for the pictures of your children by a zip drive and transfer your pictures to the zip drive. I’ve also started removing pictures from Facebook. I know for a fact Facebook makes anywhere from $12-$20 million a month on these videos and God only knows what they made up of three rats. I reported the member you put the baby in a blender and turn the blender on till he killed it and I was told it’s within their community standards and if I don’t like them block them or stop watching. Lynda Waterhouse
I’m absolutely horrified by the amount of animal abuse shown on Facebook .
What’s more disgusting is that Facebook is profiting off of it ! I would love to see some accountability ! I too have reported to Facebook & was told the same !
Set up a separate facebook account. Then you have one account for personal use, and a second for animal rights. Simple.
I know you posted this a long time ago, but just to let you know, those videos are still out there on Facebook. People download these videos and just keep reposting them under new names, profiles, channels, groups.
They are never going to go away, and Facebook doesn’t care, they make a profit from those videos
I feel the same way. I have been in Facebook jail for the same thing. Something has to be done about this abuse of baby monkeys.
I agree entirely. I watched the channel 4 Dispatches documentary about Facebook and – without a word of exaggeration – was literally traumatised for days by footage of an adult Malaysian man mercilessly beating his tiny, four year old stepson. The footage was left up on Facebook for days, to get as many views as possible. I am currently campaigning against monkey theft and abuse. social media, generally, must take much more responsibility for what it allows to be posted.
I’m so glad someone else felt they way. I was literally traumatised for several days. I don’t do Facebook- never have and never will. I can’t understand how anyone could, following that documentary.
I have been a member of Facebook since 2009, by accident i come across a video of a baby monkey in Asia, i soon realised that the monkey was being abused after further research i found out that these monkey where being illegally poached and illegally sold to the abusers since then i have tirelessly campaigned by signing petitions and sharing the information i have gathered to bring awareness to this problem i have also reported these videos to Facebook on numerous occasions and every time i receive a message stating that it does not go against the community standards, as a result of this i have been trolled for well over a year possibly longer one particular woman iwana Usei as constantly made derogatory comments against me and many other who complain against these videos i have reported her on numerous occasions and every time the reply is that her comments don’t go against Facebook’s community standards, however when i make a derogatory comment back to her my comment goes against the community standards which as left me feeling victimised, to day the 13/2/2023 my account as been restricted yet again because of this woman it appears she can say what she likes and get away with it but as soon as i respond to her the above happens, on this particular occasion another lady who she constantly targets called her a fruit loop and i agree with her because that is what Iwana Usei is, and this is the reason Facebook as restricted my account again, they have also restricted my account for posting contents that others have already posted so if this goes against their community standards i suggest they stop this contents completely and finally this is a comment that was made to me just for posting advice about these vile videos, and guess what this didn’t go against Facebook’s community standards Debbie Colantuoni Jean Watson Holdsworth gfy U lying – – nt. a very angry Mrs J Holdsworth
I agree 100%. I take screen shots of the videos I report to FB. Very disturbing blatant abuse that they say are within their “STANDARDS”. Then I will sometimes post that screen shot from the video they said was acceptable when I comment on videos where people praise & thank these abusive keepers to show them as they really are & I get sent to FB Jail for posting a pic that FB says goes against their standards. Go figure.
Well then why haven’t they enforced the laws? This bitch has five mo keys and they’re severely abused. Tormented- and only fed when they have waited for hours or days. They use food and bottles as a weapon. These people can be found and rescued..? Whatever.
I thought the one lady I see with 3 monkeys was the only one that was nice to them and feed them milk and fruit and loved them. So I will report this from now on I didn’t think it was right to make them do things and hurt them those are the ones that need jail like the one that calls him popo the little girl is so mean to him .Thanks for letting me know from now on I can report them on this page .
Excellent subject!
It just forgot to mention that, unfortunately, many of the people who view this content are sick minds who emphasize that they enjoy seeing torture… and encourage more and more pain and suffering!
These psychopaths must also be identified and monitored because they are a danger even to society!
Claudia from Brazil
I agree entirely. there has been a flood of these monkey channels appearing in the last two years. youtube must know that there is cruelty involved as some of the videos actually show it. youtube also allow videos from organisations such as Action for Primates and Ladyfreethinker’s exposse’s on this immoral trade yet continue to monetize theses channels and allow them a platform. There is a very good videographer whose handle is Artoz Marisco. He films a troop of monkeys without any interference and carries out some great investigative work into the unscrupulous people who steal baby monkeys frim their mothers for filming – and therefore monetary – gain.
I have now also been blocked by Facebook for the 4x for a number of hours, I have also made several reports of monkey abuse, but it does not meet Facebook’s guidelines, the reporters are being punished while the abusers can continue as usual, and yes there is a large group of psychopaths who all love watching the horrific videos. I will continue to post these animal abuses and link wherever I can to the help organizations like Stop Monkey Abuse! and I’ll put some links on my website, maybe it will help a bit!
get rid of these abusive monkry videos, do not to be on Face Book.
Facebook does not go anything I have reported and reported and nothing. They day it’s not against their community standards. These videos are still being seen across Facebook. But if you say anything negative against what you see you get put in what they call Facebook jail. This needs to be dealt with. Facebook does not care about it’s people who have Facebook pages and those who post such abusive acts. J
My account has been restricted since early in June because I called a woman a bitch. In the video, she had a little monkey and was stretching out it’s little arms to the sides as hard as she could pull them. The poor baby cried out every time she yanked them harder. That didn’t seem to bother Facebook at all but I was in the wrong. In another one, I don’t recall what they were doing, but I said they should be hung from the highest tree and that got me restricted even more. I don’t know how long these restrictions last. I do not understand how Facebook can block me but let those who are torturing little baby animals get away with it.
I just read a news article that 8 people from the Cambodian government were arrested for monkey trafficking. Apparently, there is good money in that. Last year, they confiscated 22 little macaque’s because it’s against the law to own them, yet they are even worse. They catch them so they can sell them to places for biochemical research. Kind of ironic – praised for “saving” 22 monkeys while murdering mother monkeys to steal the babies and sell them for research.
Initially though I found the monkeys cute later I came to know how they are being tortured. This must STOP . The root cause is Facebook and you tube, if authorities can block these to social networks from showing such videos then there won’t be anybody making such videos.
Please please stop these videos and punish all the people behind it
I am a moderator of a Facebook Group “Stop Monkey Abuse” We have members from all over the world.. We will continue to raise awareness of the abuse primates have to endure almost every day of their lives in captivity.. All in the name of entertainment for financial gain to these owners who do not care about the wellbeing of these beautiful monkeys.. We may just be one voice but if we all come together..We can shout LOUD and expose these abusers
I’m trying to find out if thenmonkey rescuer/abuser named Ian is still dumping monkeys in the Savanah. I read somewhere he had been convicted of abusing the monkeys and then dumping them. Does anyone know anything about this?
Don’t know about ‘Ian’ but they are still there, dumping monkeys and harassing them. Few channels being run by that Kunthea and her husband, plus a few others. They are current not old videos.
They are still dumping unwanted or “stale” macaques in Savannah. There’s a new channel on YouTube called Mr. Black. Whenever they want to do vile things to the monkeys to produce “drama” for the viewers, they muffle or distort their voices so we can’t tell who is shouting out or throwing things at them. Libby, who used to be KT’s or Kunthea’s discarded pet gets the brunt of being poked, prodded, and separated from her babies. Rainbow is no longer their star. Jovie is Joyce’s new baby and has taken the place of Rainbow. These channel operators take some monkeys from one group and throw them into another group and watch as the “infiltrators” are torn apart. Because Mr. Black’s group sometimes feeds them, people watching don’t realize he feeds them to draw them out to fight each other for the food/drink so people can label some of the monkeys hogs, etc. It’s all staged. And these videographers just feed them junk food or fruit. No vegetables or forage type foods. It’s absolutely sickening to see 14 sandaled feet standing not four feet away from these monkeys with cameras following them incessantly. They have no privacy whether they’re nursing babies or sleeping during the day. In fact, if they catch any monkeys napping, their voices turn to shouts to wake them and/or you’ll see pebbles tossed at them to wake them for “show” time.
I don’t know which is worse – the abuse by various humans or the government (cambodian) kills the moms to grab the babies which are sold and used for biochemical research. They must go through something pretty terrible being caged up and used for experiments.
I try desperately to report the monkey abuse everywhere! With Facebook, they say it doesn’t against there standards and the video’s remain, however, I get marked and thrown in Facebook jail. I want to know why, you blur the abusers faces (we know these faces) and do not make there real names know, call them out so everyone else can call them out so it’s easier to contact the authorities in the right areas when reporting?
What happened with the monkey “rescuer” Iin? Is he still dumping monkeys in the jungle in Cambodia?
yes and abused there as well its basically a outdoor captive pet for creating drama the latest being libby and baby rainbow makes me sick now adleast i know do not even comment they make me so mad and yt does too
Don’t know about ‘Ian’ but they are still there, dumping monkeys and harassing them. Few channels being run by that Kunthea and her husband, plus a few others. They are current not old videos.
please stop all monkey abusers and stop encouragement of psychopath views specially all families in Cambodia torture monkeys badly on media use. many monkeys are killed and robbed daily from forst to keep in cages at home to abuse on media. would be grateful if you could please save helpless abused pet monkeys at many homes using different channels on media daily, thank you
Yes Lin is still dumping babies. It’s heart breaking. Some people calling themselves NGO have taken a monkey and a baby today from Sovana troop on the pretence they were swapping swapped babies back is this true???
When the Cambodian authorities confiscated the monkeys used in videos, the people that have the Jessi family fled when they were tipped off. They apparently are still filming in what looks to be an unfurnished apartment.. Now they have added another little monkey. I have alerted thru email Lady Feethinker, WLA, and Action for primates. Still they post videos. The monkeys are showing signs of elevated stress. Any updates?
While I do report the abusive monkey videos I cannot always provide details that authorities may need. The format that’s provided needs to have space for detailed comments. This will help in prioritizing each abusive case appropriately.
Recently 4 monkeys that were filmed over long period of time on channel The Judy Family,were confiscated and placed inn Sanctuary in Cambodia.
I was surprised to see that family has new baby monkey claiming to the viewers thay have licence to keep it. How is this possible.
I contacted Lady Free Thinker about which monkeys were confiscated back in Aug 2022. Cambodian officials have not released to anyone what monkeys were confiscated or what happened to the monkeys. It all seems kind of fishy to me. In my opinion I don’t think any monkeys were confiscated I think some of the families found out about them possibly being taken and they took the opportunity to abandon them. I find it very odd that the families that are supposedly involved in this all have new monkeys, stump tail macaques which are in the endangered species list. One would think if their monkeys were taken they would be in trouble and the last thing they would be able to do is own more monkeys. I can’t believe how much these people make. The Yoyo Jr channel us worth 1.5 million dollars. They make almost 2300.00 a day. Cambodia is a very poor country and rumor has it the officials are easily paid off so who knows. No matter what anyone does we can’t stop the abuse. Facebook. YouTube and tiktok should not allow these videos but they do. It’s all about the $$.
I don’t know if you are aware that she got these monkeys back a few weeks ago? so now has 5.
She duped the authorities with promises and even built a big outdoor play area, that rarely gets used anymore.
Think her fans are wising up to this now, although there’s still hundreds that think Judee is the smartest monkey alive in big flouncy dresses.
they are all showing signs of stress.
Joyee is hardly shown anymore as she isn’t adapting to this life now.
I was watching these baby monkey videos for a few weeks. But now I realize that #1, it can’t be good that they are taken away from their parents. And I can see it in their eyes that they are not all that happy. And dressing them up and having them perform for videos is just silly. It is using them for others’ entertainment and I don’t want to support that anymore. I’m done watching the videos. I had a favorite and I wish that he survives with some happiness. Good for you people who are trying to get Cambodian government to stop the “humanizing” of these wonderful creatures.
when these monkey videos first started appearing on my Facebook feed, I watched and read the comments. At first I was fascinated, then more comments appeared either treating the monkey relationships like a soap opera Then I viewed other monkey channels where the baby monkeys were dressed up in clothes and diapers. Some posters thought it was cute, where others posted as cruel. I think that’s what caught my interest and started researching and discovered what these human captors and VO’s were doing was was illegal, cruel and inhumane to thdefenseless kess monkeys. I was outraged and wrote letters to Facebook to please remove these videos as they are accessories to the illegal activity which clearly goes against their “community standards. ” I also tried to warn an unsuspecting public to not watch these videos only to discover that responding and engaging these videos causes an algorithm problem which meant these offenders were making money off of my public service announcement. So I stopped doing that and blocked all monkey channels off my feed and opted to sign petitions whenever they come my way in hopes that the efforts of these anti-cruelty organizations can do some good and convince Mark Zuckerberg to remove or ban these vile monkey videos and promote wellbeing for these wonderful animals.
that family with Jesse is still filming and they are absolutely abusing the monkeys worst than ever and it’s crazy what they have filmed ..they are drowning them daily and after they drown the monkeys they start pushing on its chest so the water comes back up ..the guy also broke it’s jaw and arm out of socket these monkeys need help in a bad way
Monkey Libby (from savanna) is being beat, kicked, hit with rocks , and sticks. They take her baby and give it to other monkeys (like Rojo) She has been abused so bad for the past 2 years, all so she will be mean to her babies. JUST TO MAKE MONEY OFF THE STUPID HATERS!!
I was also banned yesterday March 23, 2024 from commenting on monkey abuse. The consequences are still there today. I would spread spam. Today I posted a long text on Facebook about what happened to the monkeys and how they got the monkeys. see https://www.facebook.com/reel/261480863643346 It’s surprising that I haven’t been blocked yet again.