HAMPSHIRE is one of the worst counties in the country for reports on monkeys being kept as pets.

Animal welfare charity the RSPCA has released figures which show that calls about pet primates have increased three-fold over the last five years, with Hampshire placed as the sixth worst.

An estimated 5,000 primates are being kept as pets up and down the UK, but the new data suggests that many are suffering and do not have vital social, dietary and environmental needs met.

Marmosets, Capuchins and squirrel monkeys are just some of the primates being kept as pets, and rescue groups such as the RSPCA and Wild Futures receive approximately one call every three days relating to the welfare of a monkey.

In Hampshire, 10 calls were made to the RSCPA about the welfare of primates between 2011 and 2015, compared to 34 in Greater Manchester, which was named as the worst area.

As previously reported in The Gazette, Basingstoke man Richard Walton was banned for life from keeping animals in 2014 after he took his pet monkey to the pub on a lead and kept him in a birdcage.

The father, who at the time lived in Whitgift Close, Beggarwood, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to his pet marmoset, Milo, and was charged after a patron at the Portsmouth Arms, in Hatchwarren Lane, reported him to the RSPCA when he turned up at the pub with Milo on his shoulder.

Milo, who was underweight and malnourished, was rescued by Monkey World, while Walton was sentenced to a nine-month community order and disqualified from keeping any animal indefinitely.

RSPCA senior scientific officer doctor Ros Clubb said: “The level of calls we are getting to the RSPCA just shows the number of primates that are out there are increasing – and at an alarming level. The spread of calls across the country is real cause for concern too.

“Sadly our inspectors have seen situations where monkeys have been cooped up in bird cages, fed fast food and sugary drinks, deprived of friends of their own kind, living in dirt squalor and suffering from disease.”

To sign the petition to #ProtectPrimates visit protectprimates.org.