Under an ordinance approved 7-1 on first reading Tuesday, a monkey is now, for regulatory purposes, a dog.
Rather than draft new rules for primates, City Council voted to fold monkeys into the existing ordinance capping households at four dogs or cats, a measure originally written with dogs in mind and, until this week, applied exclusively to animals that are dogs.
“The ordinance does not distinguish between a capuchin and a beagle, because at the time it was written, nobody asked us to,” said city animal programs administrator Janet Sterchi. “We have one number. The number is four.”
Under the amended cap, a resident with three cats and two marmosets is in violation, while a resident with four howler monkeys and a macaw is in full compliance, because birds remain uncounted. Sterchi described this as “a decision.”
The council cited health and noise concerns. A city spokesperson clarified that the concerns do not refer to any specific complaint, incident, or monkey, and repeated the clarification three more times over the course of the briefing without being asked.
The measure’s practical effect falls almost entirely on one North Knoxville property, where a sanctuary houses roughly 30 primates — 26 over the limit an ordinance about Labradors now sets for them. Council members were unable to say what the four-monkey household the cap does permit would look like, or whether anyone has one.
Asked whether the city had considered a separate framework for primates, Sterchi said the existing ordinance had the advantage of already existing.
The second reading is in two weeks. The dogs were not consulted.