Congress voting on Captive Primate Safety Act

Good news: The House just voted and approved the Captive Primate Safety Act, which would ban transporting primates across state lines to use as pets. The Senate will vote on a companion bill later this year.

Sadly, it took the death of Travis the chimpanzee, killed last week after attacking a person, to spur Congress to move. But it is a good move nevertheless, and should prevent tragedies like this one from happening in the future.

While the act passed overwhelmingly in the House, still, 95 representatives opposed the bill. Who, other than those who profit from the exotic pet industry, could possibly think that having primates as pets is a good thing, especially after what happened last week?

Unfortunately, the bill does not specifically prohibit people from keeping or purchasing primates as pets, so it does not go nearly as far as it needs to. But it is, at least, a start.