Issues of monkeys being regarded as on a par with humans (with sad consequences for the monkeys): the famous cliche about Hartlepool is of course the tale from the Napoleonic Wars, of a French warship's foundering near the town -- a pet monkey from the ship, which survived the event, was mistakenly identified as a French belligerent, by locals; who accordingly hanged the creature. (Hartlepool people -- rather than feeling ridiculed by this tale -- seem to get as much fun from it, as anybody else.) Reckonably at an earlier date, a similar thing was done at Boddam, Aberdeenshire -- in this case, from policy rather than cluelessness. A ship was wrecked off Boddam; only a monkey survived from its complement -- with the rule that villagers could claim salvage rights only if there were no survivors from the wreck concerned -- local guys duly hanged this monkey: a deed commemorated, one gathers, in a traditional song from the area.