A Hudson Valley legislator is seeking to stop the so-called “banana races” that involve capuchin monkeys in jockey costumes riding on dogs.
The New York Post reports that State Sen. James Skoufis (D-New Windsor) introduced a bill to stop “the use of primates in entertainment acts” for the amusements of live audiences at circuses, trade shows, carnivals, parades, and other Homo Sapien happenings.” The bill was inspired by a controversy involving the “banana races” at last year’s Orange County Fair, with animal rights activists stating the entertainment was animal cruelty.
A memo to the bill argued that having the monkeys perform in this manner puts them in “stressful and unnatural environments for the sake of entertainment purposes [that] is contrary to growing public opinion that humans ought to promote animals”™ well-being.”
Skoufis”™ bill is one of two focused on wild animal welfare ”“ the State Senate approved the passage of legislation on Tuesday that would ban the ownership roughly one dozen exotic animals as domestic pets.
This year”™s Orange County Fair takes place Sept. 16-17 and it is not certain the “banana races” will be part of the schedule.
Photo: A capuchin monkey, photographed by David A. Jensen / Wikimedia Commons
