Owner fears monkeys could be put down amid new primate licence laws

I would do anything to keep my monkeys amid licence changes

Lisa-Marie Bearman shares her three-bed terrace home in Kent with a dozen monkeys.

The marmoset troop is her "entire life", she says, and their enclosure dominates her garden.

She has sacrificed holidays with her husband for 16 years to care for them, but now she fears they could be taken away and put down after a change in the law.

The government has introduced a licensing scheme that requires the thousands of pet monkeys in the country be kept in "zoo-like" conditions.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the government department responsible for the legislation, said primates needed zoo-level welfare standards and it was working with local authorities on how to enforce the scheme.

But only a small number of licences have been granted, with none issued in Kent, the BBC has found.

Animal welfare experts warn thousands of monkeys could be put down in a potential "mass euthanasia" of primates as a result.

Bearman's garden, in Rochester, is never quiet. The marmosets share the garden with the other family pets: a rabbit, two tortoises and a dog.

The marmosets are among the 3,000 to 5,000 primates the government estimates are kept privately across the UK.

Having loved monkeys since she was a child, Bearman, a clinical-hypnotherapist, said: "In the real, most beautiful world, all animals would be free, but their natural habitat has been destroyed and these monkeys have been born in captivity.

"Their care comes from us as a family giving them everything we possibly can."

The Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2024 came into force on 6 April 2026.

Owners found to have primates without a licence face a six-month prison sentence and an unlimited fine.

To acquire a licence, they must meet "zoo-like" welfare conditions, which include:

Both an outdoor and inside space. For a pair of marmosets the outdoor enclosure must be a minimum of 2.5m (8.2 ft) x 4m (13 ft) x 2.5m (8.2 ft)

A diet tailored to the individual primate's needs

Allowing primates to exhibit normal behaviour

Being housed with, or apart from, other animals appropriately

Bearman believes licences are needed but was surprised by how stringent the requirements were.

"[The licence] really isn't designed around private keepers living in their homes and gardens, where we're very limited by height, size restrictions and planning permissions," she said.

Many welfare organisations, including the RSPCA, do not believe home environments can ever be suitable for a primate and continue to call for a full ban.

When the policy was announced in 2024, a government minister said it was "essentially incorrect" to say the licence was not a ban.

The BBC has spoken to other monkey owners who feel similarly but say they are unable to speak publicly about their concerns.

Bearman, who has applied for a licence, says she meets "90%" of the legislation's requirements but is concerned that she will be unable to reach the height and size requirements due to planning permission restrictions.

She is still waiting for an inspection from her local council to determine whether she will be granted a licence.

She has had to "desensitise from the worrying part" for the sake of her and her husband's health, she said.

While Bearman is unsure what the outcome of a future inspection will be, she is sure of one thing. "I will do anything to keep my monkeys," she said.

There are also concerns about what will happen to monkeys that remain unregistered.

Connor Gordon, head keeper of the Fenn Bell Conservation Project in Rochester, supports the law but has "concerns" about it.

He says the industry is preparing for "a potential influx" of animals whose owners are unable to obtain licences.

Changes made by Defra to the legislation have made it easier in recent weeks for primate owners, he says, but it is still "not going to be easy for anyone to keep a primate in their home".

"There are significant costs in producing enclosures," he said. "During that time, you are technically housing that animal illegally."

However, he says there are "a million and one things" that would make it difficult for zoos like Fenn Bell to take in primates from owners who cannot obtain a licence.

"There are only a finite number of homes these primates can go to. I don't have infinite space, and I'm sure the story is the same for every other zoo out there.

"There is the risk we are potentially looking at a mass euthanasia of animals that can no longer be housed appropriately."

A Freedom of Information request sent by the BBC to 294 councils suggests that, as of 24 February, only one licence had been granted, just over a month before the regulations came into effect. This licence covered only eight primates.

Former glamour model Jodie Marsh has since been granted a licence, as has a college in Grimsby.

A further 13 licences were pending, covering another 63 primates.

All but one of the internationally recognised sanctuaries in the UK which the BBC spoke to said they would struggle to take in primates.

Lindsey McKenna, founder of Wildlife Exotic Rescue, said she had already had to turn away primates.

Based in Herefordshire, she has previously taken in monkeys from across the country and now has a waiting list.

Like Gordon, McKenna supports the licence system in the long term but worries that in the short term there will be a "sacrificial generation of primates".

"I think it's going to be very, very hard for [a primate owner] to go from a hamster cage in their bedroom to over 15 to 19 square metres of indoor and outdoor enclosure," she added.

"They've suffered enough. And now we're going to let them suffer more."

A Defra spokesperson said the new laws meant that primates, "highly intelligent and complex animals", must be provided with zoo-level welfare standards where they are kept by private keepers.

"We urge private keepers to make sure they are licensed and complying with these high welfare standards, and we are working with local authorities on how to enforce the new licensing scheme," they added.

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