Moo Who?
Moo Deng really thought she’d hit the big time when Bowen Yang portrayed her on Saturday Night Live. But then along comes Punch the monkey and says, I’ll see your Bowen Yang and raise you Jon Stewart. Ya, that’s right, the Daily Show, baby.
Punch (Japanese macaque) is at the height of his fame while Moo Deng (pygmy hippopotamus) languishes forgotten in her prison. Should the two of them ever be invited on to Oprah to talk about the hazards of child fame, Moo Deng would no doubt quote Oscar Wilde: There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
My social media is a warm, cozy circle of the highly animal-aware so I scroll through posts decrying the captivity of Punch and the other monkeys. Criticising their mean, barren living quarters. Talking about the subtropical rainforests or temperate broadleaf forests that would form their natural habitat. Explaining that if Punch was living in the wild, he might still be rejected by his young mother but he would have been able to evade bullying. He could have run and climbed and hidden. He could have gradually made friends. I read countless posts from experts in monkey behaviour who say that keeping any monkey in concrete enclosures for human pleasure is so very obviously wrong.
It would be nice for me to believe that this is the worldwide reaction. That Punch’s situation has everyone talking about the ethics of keeping wild animals in zoos or the scourge of monkeys as domestic pets. But then I read articles that say IKEA can’t keep up with the demand for orange monkey plushies. That people have offered to buy Punch and give him a home within their own (human) family. That people are hating on Punch’s mother. That they are visiting the zoo in record numbers. That they are sending plushies to the zoo for Punch.
My forehead is red and sore from excessive face-palming.
Sympathy for Punch is instinctive. Humans are empathetic and when we see a small animal – especially one that looks like us – being hurt and rejected, we cannot help feeling sorry for him.
The desire to have Punch, or a monkey like him, is a childish impulse. He’s cute, I want him. To think about his situation, to learn a little bit about macaques and their lives, to imagine where they are best placed, that requires more effort.
To think about what monkeys want and then to have it come into collision with what we might want, that’s the turning point. We either stay in selfish immaturity or we grow up. We become adults who realise that that gratification of our desires shouldn’t come at the cost of another’s pain and suffering.
Moo Deng is still in Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. The zoo gained about 100,000 additional visitors every month during the height of her fame but then the internet spotlight moved on. Aaron Gekowski, filmmaker and wildlife advocate, visited in February 2026 and says: “What we saw shocked us. The zoo has made huge profits off her, yet she is still kept in a small, filthy concrete pool. This is how she will likely spend the next 30-50 years of her life. Yes, hippos do spray and live in their own dung, but they have space, grass and certainly don’t thrive in a small concrete pit.”
Zoos claim they exist to educate and to conserve animals. But mostly what they do is perpetuate the idea that wild animals exist for our gratification and entertainment. Punch’s popularity is a case study unfolding before our eyes. The zoos have monkeys, why can’t I?
In a 2023 report, Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) reported on the realities of the pet monkey trade and the cruelty behind it, and they now warn that Punch’s celebrity is only going to drive up the numbers of people wanting pet monkeys.
The internet is rife with monkeys dressed up in humiliating outfits and being forced to perform routines and tricks – or being deliberately frightened or distressed - in the hopes of garnering viral popularity and financial gain. The SMACC report is a heartbreaking read. Baby macaques can be removed from their mothers at only a day old and face years of maternal deprivation and social isolation. Pet primates suffer enormously in captivity. These adorable babies quickly mature and exhibit natural, wild behaviours that are incompatible with life inside a human household and the animal can be harshly punished for this “misbehaviour”. Thwarted expectations that monkeys should act like mini-humans inevitably end in pain and suffering for the primate.
SMACC work to expose the plight of macaques (and other animals) as social media content and their advice is concise. Don’t engage with this content in any way – even critical or sad comments will push the post up the algorithm. And do report the posts which show wild animals as pets, demanding accountability from the social media platform making money from this cruel content.
In the meantime, genuine primate conservation organisations can only watch in bemusement as hordes of people swerve past their appeals for funding in order to stock up on keychains, t-shirts, plushies and other Punch merch that does nothing to help any monkeys anywhere.
Despite Moo Deng’s worldwide fame, there was no corresponding surge in funding to protect her 2,500 remaining kin in the wild.
Jon Stewart joked that because IKEA was sold out of orange monkey plushies, he went to Ichikawa City Zoo and took Punch’s own plushie. Like all brilliant satire, it fires an arrow straight at the heart of the problem. Wild animal conservation needs every dollar it can get. Plushies adorning the beds and shelves of people around the world are symbols of the resources stolen from those trying to save real animals.
If you really want to help the Punches of the world: follow organisations and educators that share trustworthy information and stories about wildlife. Orangutans SOS, Animal Welfare Institute, Species Unite, Connie Needham and Aaron Gekowski are terrific examples.
Let's all grow up and engage with the wild world as adults.
Sources:
https://www.endcrueltyonline.com
https://awionline.org/legislation/captive-primate-safety-act
https://www.instagram.com/aaron_gekoski/
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/480541/punch-baby-monkey-viral-help
https://www.orangutans-sos.org/
The Women and the Whales
