QUESTION:
As Salaamu Alaikum,
Is it permissible to have a monkey as a pet in Islam?
ANSWER:
Wa Alaikum As Salaam,
With respect to what you have asked about, it is important to know that there are certain conditions laid in Islam which must be fulfilled if a person wishes to keep an animal or bird as a pet. From among these are: –
- The animal kept as a pet must be treated with kindness. One must provide it with its food on time and also provide it with drink. These must be from that which is appropriate for the specific animal, and in accordance to what the animal would normally consume. Starving the animal and not feeding it on time is not permissible. As such, one must be conscious of feeding the animal on time.
- One must not cause harm/injury to the animal or mistreat it. One must also not keep it in an environment (place) that is not suited for such animals. It will not be permissible, while keeping an animal as a pet, to house it in an environment which can cause harm or even cause death to that animal.
- Animals that can be kept as pets must not be wild, harmful, vicious or ferocious, which can cause harm to humans or other animals.
- While keeping an animal as a pet in one’s house, the animal itself must not cause harm to the owner or other human beings, and it must not be subjected to any harm or suffering by being caged or tied, or by being separated from other similar animals.
With respect to keeping a monkey as a pet, many ‘Animal and wildlife’ experts have discouraged people from doing so because of the possible harms that can be caused to the monkey, and the harms it can cause to humans. While writing on this, they have stated, ‘Primates’ (monkeys) are very intelligent, social and wild animals with complicated needs that can’t be met in a home environment’.
‘They are potentially dangerous. While they might look cute, they can become aggressive when they mature and have been known to bite and attack their owners’.
‘Primates (monkeys) can also spread diseases to humans, such as measles and herpes. Primates must be reared by their mothers, as removing them too early in an attempt to ‘tame’ them causes extreme suffering. Primates are highly social animals, and keeping them alone is inhumane. Human company is in no way a replacement for living with other compatible primates of their own kind’. (Keeping Primates as Pets – RSPCA 2023 – rspca.org.uk).
Similarly, while discussing whether monkeys should be kept as pets, Maryann Mott, in her article ‘The Perils of keeping Monkeys as Pets’, published in September 2003 in the National Geographic magazine, wrote, ‘As babies, these big-eyed, furry creatures may seem harmless. But once they reach Sexual Maturity, experts warn, monkeys can become aggressive. And some primates harbor deadly diseases, like herpes B, that they can pass on to human primates via bites and scratches.
She further wrote, ‘Veterinarian Kevin Wright of Phoenix Zoo in Arizona says that primates are highly intelligent emotionally complex, and long – lived animals that need to be around their own kind in order to develop normally. If you try to keep them as pets, you are creating a mentally disturbed animal in 99.9 percent of the cases. Wright, director of conservation, science and sanctuary at the Zoo, further says, ‘The animal will never be able to fit in any home. Never learn how to get along with other monkeys, and more often than not, will end up with a lot of behavioral traits that are self-destructive’. Wright further says, ‘Once monkeys reach sexual maturity, they can be dangerous.
Maryann Mott, in her above article went on to say that in an attempt to establish dominance, monkeys may attack their human family members. She also quoted Truitt of the Primate Rescue Center as saying, ‘Primates are wild animals. No amount of surgical mutilation, training or beating will ever change that’.
(The Perils of keeping Monkeys as Pets by Maryann Mott – national geographic.com)
From the above information given by wild life experts, the following are evident: –
- Monkeys are wild animals which cannot be tamed to become domesticated.
- At times, they can become aggressive and dangerous, thus causing harms to their owners and others.
- They cannot adopt and become comfortable in a human home environment since this environment does not fulfill their needs.
- As wild animals that possess their own nature, they become fully settled, happy and contented when they live with their own type. They have their own family and other primates that they live with and enjoy themselves with.
- Taking them from that environment and putting them in a cage or placing a chain around their necks as some people do to avoid them from running away, along with keeping them in isolation far away from their family members, would definitely cause harm to them as highlighted by wildlife experts.
For these reasons, especially, the possibility of causing harm to them by keeping them as pets, and the possibility of harms being caused by them to humans, it will not be permissible to keep them as pets.
And Allah Knows best
Mufti Waseem Khan
10/02/2023