Can you legally own a pet monkey in Amarillo Texas?

Answer 1

Some species are illegal, some aren't. A few species that you can own are Capuchins, Squirrel Monkeys, Tamarins, and Marmosets. They are the smaller kind though. There are many pet monkey owners in Texas. But monkeys cost A LOT of money and can be very destructive and messy. They cannot be trained or housebroken, even if they spent their life in captivity. If you want to buy a monkey, you have to be able to stay home at all times, and give it lots and lots of care.

Answer 2

I live in Amarillo and have recently been looking into this myself. I am a Biology major with 9 years of veterinary experience, including exotics and came to the conclusion that they were not for me, even WITH my experience. Consider these things strongly:

-Most primates are sold at 5-8 weeks of age. At this time, they have care needs similar to human babies. Frequent feeding (think every 3 hours) and LOTS of social interaction. This is imperative to make them tame enough to be pets.

-Exotic pets come with exotic price tags. Be prepared to spend at least $3,000 for the animal, plus money for shipping exotic animals, proper caging and their special food, which must be ordered online.

-Since monkeys are so closely related to people, many diseases and illnesses are shared. This means that your monkey can give you any number of diseases including hepatitis and many others. Furthermore, if you get a cold, you can share it with your monkey and a cold for you could be life threatening for your monkey. Also, monkeys are unpredictable. They bite. And that is a liability. I treated monkeys at the vet clinic I worked at and, although they were super sweet, some of them would end up biting someone and then the owner was REQUIRED to bring the pet in for disease testing and submit the pet for quarantine.

Not as much fun as you might think. Read up. A lot. Give it a few weeks so that you don't make any impulsive decisions. Municipal Code for the city is a good reference. I'm fairly confident that "non-human" primates are not regulated by Texas State Law and, judging by the number of monkeys we've treated in town I'd say they were legal in Amarillo, but local laws vary, so contact Mike McGee at Animal Control and just ask to be sure.

And again-monkeys are tiny, slightly less evolved people-they can be highly intelligent, loving, affectionate and charismatic, but they need a lot of attention. Lack of appropriate care can lead to depression or aggression and no one wants that to happen.

Answer 3

You probably can, but you'd have to look pretty hard. Although, honestly I wouldn't get one. I got one and it makes a mess... a BIG mess

Answer 4

STATES WHICH BANS CERTAIN NONHUMAN PRIMATE SPECIES AND REQUIRE PERMITS FOR OTHERS: Florida, Texas