Slavery is back again!

You may have heard about the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Captive Primate Safety Act today.

The House of Representatives voted today to approve the Captive Primate Safety Act (HR 80), with 323 lawmakers in favor and 95 opposed. The bill, which would make it illegal to transport chimpanzees and other primates across state lines for individuals' use as pets, was debated Monday with a vote (initially expected following debate) postponed until today.

It certainly seems an overreaction to one tragic incident; surely there are more pressing things on Congress' agenda. But here's the part I liked.

Section 2(g) of the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 (16 U.S.C. 3371(g)) is amended by inserting before the period at the end `or any nonhuman primate'.
. . .

(e) Captive Wildlife Offense-

`(1) IN GENERAL- It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species.

Link

What they're doing is amending an existing law by adding "nonhuman primate" to the definition of prohibited wildlife species.

Reading that, it seems pretty clear that it remains legal (who knew?) to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any human primate. After all, we're not "nonhuman" are we?

This seems a controversial measure, but I guess Congress knows what it's doing. They seem like such a smart bunch.