On June 20, 2021, a chimpanzee named Buck was shot and killed in Pendleton, Oregon. After escaping from his backyard cage and in a state of agitation, Buck attacked both his owner and her daughter, who suffered bites and extensive scratches on their legs, arms, and abdomens. With her daughter barricaded in the basement, Buck’s owner called authorities to the scene and stated that Buck must be shot because the 200-pound ape could not be subdued. She emphasized that the department must send more than one police officer because she worried one would not be enough. The police arrived and shot Buck dead, later stating that they had no choice but to kill Buck in order to provide medical aid to the woman and her daughter.
The woman kept Buck as a pet for 17 years. Although almost every article summarizing the events leading up to Buck’s sudden death state that “it remains unclear what caused Buck to attack,“ the truth is… what happened was no mystery. The simple answer is that nothing prompted this attack; it was within Buck’s nature as a wild chimpanzee to attack anything or anyone he viewed as a threat. Without any friends or allies of his own kind, Buck would have felt constantly threatened in his alien captive environment – a far cry from his natural habitat. Buck was acting on his instincts as a wild animal, which could not be extinguished even after 17 years living among humans as a pet.
Buck’s story alongside several other haunting incidents – including that of Charla Nash, whose face and hands were severely mauled by Travis, a friend’s pet chimpanzee – underline the real dangers that owning primates poses to public safety. These dangers are not exclusive to owning great apes; numerous people have reported violent attacks involving all primate species in private possession, including marmosets, capuchins, lemurs, macaques, and baboons, indicating that, irrespective of species or size, all of these animals are wild animals. Fortunately, private ownership of primates is now illegal in Oregon; no one can obtain a new permit, though those who acquired permits before 2010 may maintain possession of their exotic animals. Oregon remains just one of 22 U.S. states that have already taken steps to ban private ownership of primates. Sadly for Buck, these regulations came too late to save him from a life of cruel captivity and a violent death.
The Captive Primate Safety Act, which was reintroduced to Congress on May 12, 2021, would institute a federal-level ban on the private ownership of nonhuman primates and restrictions on public interactions with any nonhuman primate species.
Take Action on the Captive Primate Safety Act
Urge your lawmaker to cosponsor this important bill!
We need this bill to pass not only for the sake of public safety but also to preserve the lives of beautiful (and innocent) nonhuman primates, our closest animal relatives, who, like Buck the chimpanzee, so frequently pay the ultimate price simply for being the wild animals that that are.
To learn more about Born Free USA’s primate sanctuary, home to hundreds of monkeys, many rescued from the pet trade, please click here.
Learn more about the cruelty and danger of keeping wild animals like apes and monkeys as pets with the following resources by Born Free USA:
- Public Danger, Private Pain: The Case against the U.S. Primate Pet Trade (2021 Report)
- Finding Sanctuary: Life After the Primate Pet Trade (2023 Documentary)
- Selling Suffering: Exploring Online Sales of Exotic Pets in the U.S. (2023 Report)
- Their Lives for Your Likes: The Exploitation of Wild Animals on Social Media (2022 Report)
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Devan
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