In the parking garage of a Baltimore County mall, a baby spider monkey and a lemur were placed inside a ring of fire while strangers paid to pose with them. This wasn't a one-time incident. It was a business.

Jayden Evans and Vernon Crowley III ran paid photoshoots featuring illegally obtained exotic animals, advertising openly on social media. When police executed a search warrant, they found the spider monkey and lemur malnourished and in improper living conditions. The animals had been transported from an unknown source in Florida through North Carolina before ending up in a Middle River apartment.

Owning a primate in Maryland is illegal. That law exists for good reason. Lemurs and spider monkeys can transmit tuberculosis and bacteria that cause serious infections in humans. They can inflict serious injuries. And they suffer when removed from their natural social environments and subjected to stressful, chaotic photoshoots.

Evans and Crowley got caught. But operations like theirs exist across the country, openly advertising on social media with few consequences. Maryland must respond with more than a single arrest.

The Maryland Attorney General and Baltimore County State's Attorney must pursue the strongest possible charges. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources must actively monitor social media for illegal exotic animal advertisements. And federal wildlife authorities must trace the Florida-based trafficking pipeline that supplied these animals.

Sign to demand Maryland take action against pay-to-pose exotic animal businesses before another malnourished primate ends up in a parking garage ring of fire.