2024 was a busy year for Customs agents in South Texas, who are catching more than drugs and humans being smuggled.
Last year set records for the number of baby monkeys, seized from smugglers, who were trying to sneak them across the southern border and sell them as pets.
It’s frustrating for experts, who say there is a growing appetite for exotic animals in this country.
“It just never ends well, it never does.” Dante Fenolio at the San Antonio Zoo says that monkeys are much stronger and more dangerous than people realize, and that’s only the start. He says having a monkey as a pet can spread diseases.
The zoo is part of a nationwide push to ban private possession of primates.
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