This item on MSNBC’s First Read caught my eye. Italics mine:
HOUSE PASSES CHIMP BILL
Your U.S. House has passed a measure that would make it more difficult to keep an ape as a pet.
A week after a woman lay in critical condition after being mauled by a pet chimpanzee, the Captive Primate Safety Act passed bya 323-95 voted, with 93 Republicans in opposition.
The act would apply to the sale and transport of monkeys, great apes, lemurs, etc. The measure “makes it unlawful for a person to sell or purchase a live animal of any prohibited wildlife species in interstate or foreign commerce,” according to a Library of Congress summary.
It seems that partisan polarization now extends to pet chimps, with Democrats voting 247-2 in favor of the ban, and Republicans voting 93-76 against. Opponents of the bill might want to print bumper stickers saying, “When owning a pet chimp is a crime, then only criminals will have pet chimps.”