Monkey pain on the internet: how macaques are being abused for social media

Videos of anthropomorphic monkeys are among the most popular content on social networks. This often leaves small macaques suffering terribly – including drugs and sexual abuse, as animal rights activists have discovered.

Little monkeys in baby clothes or diapers, in a bubble bath or with makeup on their faces: videos of macaques depicted as human children attract many likes and malicious comments on social networks. For the helpless animals, the psychological and physical damage they suffer is often enormous.

The torture extends to the deliberate killing of the animals – all on camera and for the amusement of countless users, as revealed in a new report from the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC). The association includes 20 animal protection organizations.

Any content is offensive

For the report “The Suffering of Macaques for Social Media Content,” SMACC staff examined approximately 1,250 photos and videos on social networks between September 2021 and March 2023, mainly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The animal rights activists documented more than 2,800 cases of clear abuse. So, on average, each piece of content was assigned to more than two abuse categories.

The most common evidence was deliberate psychological and physical abuse, including torture. Many macaques were apparently separated from their mothers when they were just a few days old and sold as pets. Some were beaten, others were put in clothes that were too tight and forcibly prevented from getting out. Food deprivation was also part of the spectrum of abuse. Particularly shocking: In dozens of cases, baby macaques were apparently drugged, sexually abused or killed – sometimes slowly and painfully.

“Anyone who feels connected to animals can only be shocked when they look at these videos and photos of macaques in human care – especially since they are among the most popular animal content on social networks,” said Wiebke Passe of World Animal Welfare Society, which follows the Verbund, is the only German organization to which it belongs. Both the networks and lawmakers must urgently put an end to this animal suffering, she demanded.

Wrong interpretation

Some viewers misinterpreted the primates’ behavior, expressions and gestures as fun, happiness or joy, the report said. The supposed smile is often a grimace with which the animals express their fear.

Experts agree that keeping primates as pets is inherently cruel and poses a host of problems. Like other wild animals, macaques always retain their natural instincts and needs and cannot develop in a species-specific way in human households.

Northern pig-tailed macaques were seen most often in the videos, followed by long-tailed macaques and stump-tailed macaques. The species is classified as ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Macaques are often kept as pets, especially in Asia, but also throughout the rest of the world, although this is illegal almost everywhere. Their popularity as social media content is motivating more and more people to buy baby macaques and use them to create more content, animal rights activists have warned. (sda/dpa)