Please note that a majority of monkey bites, attacks and escapes go unreported

http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050304/APN/503040574&cachetime=5

AP State News
March 04. 2005 4:17AM

Chimps escape, attack visitors at animal sanctuary in Calif.

By KIM CURTIS
Associated Press Writer

A couple's visit to the chimpanzee they were forced to relinquish to an animal sanctuary turned tragic when two other chimps attacked the husband, critically wounded him before the animals were shot to death in mid-assault.

The son-in-law of the sanctuary's owner killed the animals that left St. James Davis, 62, in critical condition with massive injuries to his face, body and limbs, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.

"He saw what was happening and had one kind of weapon with him and then got another he felt would be more substantial and shot them," Martarano said. "He pretty much saved a life."

Davis' wife, LaDonna Davis, 64, suffered a bite wound to the hand while attempting to help her husband, Martarano said.

The Davises were at the Animal Haven Ranch to celebrate the birthday of Moe, a 39-year-old chimpanzee who was taken from their suburban Los Angeles home in 1999 after biting off part of a woman's finger.

The couple had brought Moe a cake and were standing outside his cage when Buddy and Ollie, two of the four chimpanzees in the adjoining cage, attacked St. James Davis, Martarano said. Officials do not yet know how the chimps got out of their enclosure, he said.

Moe was not involved in Thursday's attack, Martarano said.

Dr. Maureen Martin, of Kern Medical Center, told KGET-TV of Bakersfield that the monkeys chewed most of Davis' face off and that he would require extensive surgery in an attempt to reattach his nose.

Davis was transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was undergoing surgery late Thursday night, according to Martarano.

Kern County Sheriff's Cmdr. Hal Chealander told The Bakersfield Californian that besides the damage to his face, Davis had his testicles and foot mauled off. Buddy, a 16-year-old male chimp, initiated the attack and after he was shot, Ollie, a 13-year-old male, grabbed the gravely injured man and dragged him down the road, according to Chealander.

"Everybody was trying to get the chimp off," Chealander said.

Two other chimps, females named Susie and Bones, also escaped from the cage they shared with Ollie and Buddy, prompting sheriff's deputies, animal control workers, and Fish and Game officials to launch a search.

The wayward pair were eventually recovered peacefully by Animal Haven owner Virginia Brauer after five hours. Martarano said one chimp was two miles from the sanctuary.

The Davises had waged an unsuccessful legal fight to bring Moe back to their West Covina home and visited him regularly at the sanctuary where he had been living since October. They brought the chimp from Africa decades ago after a poacher killed his mother.

Animal Haven Ranch has held state permits to shelter animals since 1985 and serves as a sanctuary for animals that have been confiscated or discovered lost, Martarano said.

It is allowed to house up to nine primates at one time and is home to one spider monkey and six chimpanzees, he said. The permits are held by Ralph and Virginia Brauer, who could not be reached immediately for comment.

Neighbors described them as devoted and responsible animal lovers.

"Nobody ever complains about these people," neighbor Debbie Hay told The Bakersfield Californian. "I think they tried to do a good thing."

Jeanne Miller, a family friend, said the Brauers cared for animals with their own money and the help of friends who brought fruit to help feed them.

"She's devoted her whole life to taking care of these chimpanzees," Miller said of Virginia Brauer.

Chimpanzees can turn surly if not handled properly, said Martine Colette, animal director of the Wildlife WayStation, a sanctuary near Los Angeles where Moe was housed for a time.

"Chimps are notoriously strong and they have some very, very specific behaviors," Colette said. "If someone tries to confine them, they will definitely put up a fight."

"An average person who doesn't know chimp body language can't read them," she added.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041209/NEWS08/412090392/1001/NEWS

More than 90 animals are seized near Akron

Police had gotten a tip that the animals were being neglected. The owner of the unoccupied residence is expected to face charges.

By JESSICA GRAHAM
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
December 9, 2004

More than 90 animals, including monkeys, burros and a potbellied pig, were taken from an Akron residence Tuesday after police received complaints that they were being neglected.

Plymouth County sheriff's deputies and several representatives from the Siouxland Humane Society and the Animal Rescue League of Iowa seized 40 dogs, eight dog carcasses, 16 cats, 14 chickens, seven ducks, four goats, two burros, two macaque monkeys, a rabbit and a potbellied pig. It took more than 15 deputies and animal-care workers at least eight hours to clear the property.

Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo said Bonita Dow of Sioux City owns the unoccupied residence near Akron. Dow could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Van Otterloo said Dow had been keeping animals in the yard behind a chain-link fence, and in the house, in a garage and in a shed. Some animals were kept in cages without access to proper food and water. Many of the cages had not been cleaned recently, and the animals were living in urine and feces.

"Not until recently did it seem like she was gathering more animals . . . so many that they weren't being properly cared for," the sheriff said.

Tom Colvin, executive director of the Animal Rescue League, said he expects that Dow will be charged with animal neglect.

Colvin said the monkeys, which had sores on their bodies, are rare.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that macaque monkeys can carry a virus that can be passed to humans through bites and scratches. The virus can cause potentially fatal meningoencephalitis in people, so the animals typically are not suitable as pets.

The animals are being cared for by the Siouxland Humane Society in Sioux City, except the two monkeys and one of the dogs. The Animal Rescue League is seeing to their care.

Colvin said none of the animals can be adopted until after a court hearing within 10 days of the seizure.

Josh Colvin, cruelty intervention coordinator for the Animal Rescue League, said it's unclear how often Dow checked the animals.

"No one can possibly care for that many animals by themselves," he said.

Tom Colvin said animal experts have theories about cases where someone has so many animals that they cannot care for them.

"There's been studies done about hoarder mentality," he said. "They cannot release them to anyone else's care, even though there's so many needs they can't see to: nutritional needs, veterinary care and sanitation."

http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/story/119202004_new02monkey09.asp

Rescuers give chase to monkey
11/9/04

By AMY McCULLOUGH Tribune Chronicle

GIRARD - When firefighters and police officers in Liberty and Girard received some phone calls Saturday about an escaped monkey, they said it seemed too comical to be true.

The 18-inch Capuchan monkey's journey through one township, one city and numerous rooftops ended Sunday when it fell 75 feet from a power line in Girard. However, the animal survived the fall and is now safely back in the Girard home of its owner. But when rescue workers arrived Saturday at Belmont Avenue in Liberty, they were greeted with a frightened exotic pet and an owner desperately trying to lure it from the rooftop of Bob Evans restaurant.

Vivian Dunkel of Girard, the monkey's owner, was picking up something from the restaurant when her child accidentally let the monkey out of the car, Liberty police Chief Anthony Slifka said.

When firefighters arrived, Dunkel climbed their ladder with bananas in hand and called to her pet monkey in an attempt to lure it into a cage.

The monkey escaped capture, jumped to the ground and ran off into the woods, but not before pealing a few bananas, Slifka said.

"It was heading westbound in the parking lot with its tail flying in the air. I felt like the Wizard of Oz. It was obviously very shaken up; she was on the roof for a while,'' Slifka said.

Liberty police officers put out an all-points bulletin on the monkey, but hadn't seen her since.

The animal was shocked by an electrical wire on Plymouth Avenue in Girard before its capture, although it was not seriously injured and is back home with Dunkel, according to Walt Sheler, a member of the Animal Welfare League's emergency response team.

Tim Adkins of Kinsman, the owner of Mountain Man Trappers, said Dunkel called him to help snatch the simian from its rooftop journey.

"The owners had got her confined to a roof,'' Adkins said. "About the time I got up on that roof, the monkey looked at me and decided she didn't want to be up there any more.''

The animal jumped down from the roof, ran two blocks and up a utility pole.

"Then, she got mixed up with some power lines,'' Adkins said. "She took a pretty good jolt, fell, and I thought that was going to be the end of her. But she seems to be doing OK.''

The owners were able to scoop up their pet, he said, and immediately took her to a veterinarian.

Dunkel recently bought the monkey at an auction, but it may not have felt comfortable enough with its new owner to take the bait when they tried to lure her, said Sheler, who received a call from an elderly couple on Indiana Avenue in Girard around 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

The couple let their dog out because it would not stop barking, Shelar said. When they looked to see what was causing the ruckus, they found a monkey on their roof.

Shelar said the monkey ate three peanut butter sandwiches before jumping to another roof.

"We tried luring it down, but it was so quick and agile that it just jumped from roof to roof and then jumped in a tree,'' he said.

Amber Bauman, an employee with the Animal Welfare League and part of the emergency response team, said she asked Girard police if they were sure it was a monkey on the roof.

"That's not a call you get every day,'' she said.

Bauman said everyone was trying to brainstorm on how to catch the monkey, which she said weighed between 4 and 6 pounds.

"They're very intelligent. You could see it was cold and hungry. As long as we stayed in the kitchen, she didn't move. She was hungry and wanted to get out of the cold, but every time we moved, she got scared,'' Bauman said. "It was unfortunate for the animal and for those trying to rescue her.''

Debbie Serbati, shelter director for the Animal Welfare League, said emergency workers left once they found out the monkey had an owner.

"When an owner has been located, then we're pretty much out of the picture,'' Serbati said. "We've had different calls on monkeys before. They do tend to get loose sometime.''

Dunkel was not available for comment Monday.

In his 20 years as a trapper, Adkins said he usually takes calls for raccoons, skunks, groundhogs and other northeastern Ohio nuisance animals. He has had some exotic calls before, he said, including a silver fox in Gustavus and some emus.

"But this is the first monkey,'' he said.

http://www.wkbn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2536607
Trumbull County, Ohio
Monkey Business

(11/8/04) It was all monkey business in Girard over the weekend, when a pet monkey escaped.

On Saturday, police and fire were called to the Bob Evans Restaurant on Belmont Avenue, after a female monkey was spotted on the rooftop.

Apparently, she'd gotten away from her owners. Yesterday, she was spotted on Plymouth Street in Girard. Soon she made her way up some power lines over the Trumbull avenue bridge. A local trapper was called out to help.

After getting zapped, the monkey fell 75 feet. Amazingly, she survived!

Her owners tell First News: she's doing okay and will see a veterinarian today, who specializes in exotic animals.

http://www.theomahachannel.com/entertainment/3756361/detail.html
Monkey Bites Utility Worker; Owner Arrested
Woman Refused To Hand Over Animal
POSTED: 4:37 pm CDT September 23, 2004

SHUEYVILLE, Iowa -- Police said a rural Shueyville woman was arrested for refusing to hand over a monkey that bit a utility worker. Sue Kriz was charged Wednesday with interference with official acts after authorities went to her home to seize the Capuchin monkey.

Johnson County authorities said a telephone worker who went to the home Monday was bit by the monkey. Officials do not know if the worker received medical treatment. A judge ordered the monkey removed from the home for routine testing.
Officials gave the order because there was concern Kriz would not surrender the animal voluntarily.

Capuchin are considered to be intelligent and are used as pets, trained performers, and therapy animals. The monkeys are historically known as the pets used by organ grinders during performances. They are native to southern Central America.

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040923/NEWS01/409230326/1079

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Officials to seize monkey who bit man
By Iowa City Press-Citizen

Johnson County authorities sought and received court permission this week to seize a monkey from a Shueyville home after the primate bit a utility worker.

The monkey in question lives at 3080 120th Ave. NE, the home of Sue Kriz. It bit the male worker Monday, and Assistant Johnson County Attorney went to court Tuesday seeking a judge's order "to seize any monkey or monkeys on the property ....confine them for a period of fourteen days, and perform any tests as directed by the Iowa Department of Public Health."

According to Lahey's application, past dealings with Kriz made it "very unlikely" she would voluntarily turn over the animal. Lahey did not elaborate. Judge Denver Dillard granted the request.

Further details were not available at press time.

http://www.thehometownchannel.com/news/3611067/detail.html
Toddler Bitten By Monkey In Brooklyn Supermarket
Monkey Trained To Help Disabled Owner

POSTED: 2:49 pm EDT August 3, 2004
UPDATED: 3:03 pm EDT August 3, 2004

NEW YORK -- A monkey trained to help a disabled man with chores bit a 2-year-old boy in a Brooklyn supermarket.

The boy, Thomas Romano, was shopping with his grandparents at a grocery store at about 4 p.m. Monday when the monkey bit him on the arm. He was treated at a hospital and released.

The monkey's owner, 45-year-old Steven Seidler, said the animal attacked after the boy pulled its fur. Seidler is confined to a wheelchair and uses the monkey to help him open doors and pick things up.

But Romano's grandmother, Helene Romano, said the bite was unprovoked. It is illegal to keep monkeys as pets in New York City, but permits are given for those trained to help the disabled.

http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2004/07/08/news/01newsmonkey.txt
Published - Thursday, July 08, 2004
Monkey chase leads to quarantined animal and two people seeking rabies shots

By Jeff Dankert of the Winona Daily News

ST. CHARLES, Minn. - Authorities ordered a monkey quarantined Wednesday at the Winona County fairgrounds, and two people bitten Tuesday agreed to undergo rabies shots.

The incident, stemming from an unidentified boy who let a monkey loose Tuesday, could have led to a worse outcome, authorities and the monkey's owner said.

"I thought those guys were champions in catching the monkey in the first place, and now I think they're heroes in keeping the monkey alive," said Brian Staples of Cresco, Iowa, who operates Staples Safari Zoo and Animal Rescue and has a petting zoo and show at the Winona County Fair.

About 3 p.m. Tuesday, a boy went to a trailer where Staples keeps three Capuchins, a spider monkey, a vervet monkey and a lemur, according to the Winona County Sheriff Department.

The boy pried a locked door open, went into the trailer and then ran away, followed by all of Staples monkeys, he said. Staples and his helpers rounded up all but one Capuchin, which bit two people before being caught, Staples said.

Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand said police and deputies are looking for the boy who allegedly released the monkeys.

Winona County authorities met with Staples and the two victims for several hours Wednesday at the fairgrounds to decide how to resolve possible rabies issues. The two victims agreed to undergo a series of six rabies shots over 28 days, and Staples agreed to keep the monkey under quarantine for the same period.

"I'm sorry I'm going to put you though any pain," Staples told Anthony Mason-Forcier of Coon Rapids. The man went to the St. Charles Clinic on Wednesday to get his first shot. Staples set up billing to pay for the shots for both victims.

Mason-Forcier and a young woman who wouldn't provide her name said they were willing to take the shots rather than force authorities to kill and test the monkey.

"We would have had to make arrangements to put the animal down, which nobody wanted," said Ross Dunsmoor, Winona County Environmental Services supervisor. "Everybody's happy right now, including us."

Staples said he acquires monkeys rescued by government agencies and animal welfare organizations. He provided documentation to authorities Wednesday that showed the animals' health records and chain of custody are up to date
and legal.

The quarantined monkey, a 7-year-old named Lucas, likely would not have bitten anyone if people had not chased and cornered it, Staples said.

Smiling after the investigation finished Wednesday, he said he was pleased it would remain unharmed.

"These are my children," he said.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/3502037/detail.html

Monkey Found In Macomb County Yard
Animal Control Official Says Animal Was 'Potentially Dangerous'
July 7, 2004

A Bruce Township family reportedly discovered a stray animal in their yard, but it wasn't a dog.

A monkey was transported to the Macomb County Animal Shelter after it was discovered Monday night, according to a report in The Macomb Daily. The monkey appears to be a macaque, which is the most widely distributed type of primate, according to chief animal control officer Sue Jeroue.

"They can be aggressive," Jeroue told the paper. "It's a wild animal and a stray on top of that. It was potentially dangerous."

The macaques are described as having gray, brown or black fur, and are commonly housed in research facilities, zoos, wildlife parks or kept as pets, according to the report.

The monkey that was found weighs about 20 pounds or less and the gender was not known.

Jeroue said Wednesday that the monkey's owner has come forward, but the animal is being held at their facilities.

Monkeys are reportedly legal as pets in some areas. The animal shelter will determine if it is appropriate for the owner to have the pet, Jeroue said.

Jim Janson, a wildlife division permit specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said there are no restrictions in the state against owning a monkey; however, someone looking to keep a monkey as a pet must first check with their local government offices for ordinances against exotic pets, according to the paper's report.

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1079454455325950.xml
ALMONT TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
By James L. Smith
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Almont Twp. - Dozens of animals, including four monkeys, were found living on a farm here, some in what animal control officials described as deplorable conditions.

A total of 80 dogs were found living on the property, many in barns, but only nine were seized pending issuance of a search warrant. The rest of the animals remained on the property.

Authorities discovered the situation after responding to a domestic dispute involving a husband and wife early Saturday.

Five dogs, four monkeys and a number of caged cockatoos and parrots were found in the couple's residence on Hall Road.

Lapeer County Animal Control Chief Walt Rodabaugh said the living area of the house was "not too bad" but that the basement where the monkeys were living was in very bad shape.

The monkeys appeared to be similar to those used in medical research, Rodabaugh said. Plans are to relocate them to a zoo.

No charges have been filed in connection with the suspected animal neglect.

The couple have a kennel license issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Flint Journal could not reach USDA officials for comment Monday.

Additional examinations by veterinarians and an investigator from the federal agency that licenses the kennel are needed before a decision is made on potential criminal charges, Rodabaugh said.

Police arrested the wife, 44, after she refused to let officers enter the home and threatened to turn three dogs loose on officers after the officers tried to enter the house looking for her allegedly suicidal husband, said Almont Police Chief Eugene Bruns.

The woman, contacted at her house, declined to comment Monday.

Many of the dogs, of various breeds including Rottweilers and golden retrievers, were kept in cages on cement slabs with no bedding in various barns on the property, Rodabaugh said.

"There was no heat in the buildings and no evidence of food or water in the cages," he said.

The nine dogs seized include a Boston terrier with obvious skin problems and bichon frises that were matted with dried feces.

"We took the (nine) because of unsanitary conditions. They were outside and covered with feces," Rodabaugh said.

Once a search warrant is issued, Rodabaugh said he would return to the house accompanied by veterinarians to check on all the animals and determine whether more should be seized. He said he has a group of dog groomers lined up to clean the dogs after they are examined by a veterinarian.

Rodabaugh said his office had investigated complaints about the residence prior to the couple receiving a federal kennel license.

Almont police Officer Laura Moore, assisted by officers from Imlay City and Almont, arrived at the residence about 3:50 a.m. Saturday after a resident at the house called about a family fight, Bruns said.

When officers arrived, they learned that the property's co-owner, 49, had fired a .22-caliber rifle in the air in the yard and returned inside the house, where he slashed his wrists and then disappeared outside on the property.

Officers eventually located the man hiding under a blanket in one of the barns on the property, Bruns said. The man was taken to an area hospital for a mental evaluation.

A third person, a man confined to a wheelchair, was also living in the house, but he was simply renting a room from the couple.

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0403/11/ma05.html
March 11, 2004
Longing for pet, woman climbs in cage

By Jeremy Hudson jehudson@clarionledger.com
Kathy Hannah slept in the same bed with Chico the monkey, bathed him in a tub and kept him in diapers at her Clinton home, officials said.

Vickie D. King / The Clarion-Ledger

Chico, a 6-year-old Capuchin monkey, has been impounded at the Mississippi Animal Rescue League.

Though the Clinton Animal Rescue League persuaded her to relinquish Chico on Tuesday after he bit somebody, Hannah apparently couldn't bare to see him go.

Later that day, Hinds County sheriff's deputies were called to the Rescue League, where "we found (Hannah) drunk and inside a cage with a monkey," Deputy Anthony Cook wrote in a report.

"Miss Hannah was very abusive to us and the rescue league employees. We tried to get her out of the cage and every time we got close to her the monkey would try to attack us."

Chico finally was subdued, and Hannah was charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, the report said. Hannah, released on bond Wednesday, could not be reached.

During the past five months, Chico had bitten Hannah, her neighbor, a Clinton police officer, and an employee at the Rescue League, officials said.

Last month, Hannah, 39, was charged with simple assault on a police officer, eluding a police officer and careless driving after she drove off with Chico when authorities came to take him, said Ric Wooton, Clinton's animal control officer. The city doesn't allow exotic pets.

The 6-year-old Capuchin monkey will leave Mississippi today for a sanctuary in Oklahoma.

"They are not little children with fur coats," said Debra Boswell, director of the Rescue League. "When they reach sexual maturity, they start to become true monkeys and act aggressively. They can do a lot of damage."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40463-2003Dec30.html

Pet Monkey Bites the Hand That Feeds Her
Zsa Zsa Quarantined After Injuring Owner's Friend in Dinnertime Mishap
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 1, 2004; Page SM01

The behavior was quite unlike Zsa Zsa.

Sure, she has been known to nip at a shirt button, and she likes to wrestle around. But she has some manners. She'll eat pizza from the table, drink out of a straw, and what's more, members of her family say, she knows right from wrong.

So when Jeffrey Bennett approached Zsa Zsa, a 6-year-old pigtailed macaque monkey, to give her the evening meal of baby formula on Saturday, he had no reason to expect his left thumb would be the main course.

But that's what happened, said Bennett, a 39-year-old man who stays at the Calvert County home of Tracey Summers, the owner of two monkeys. Bennett said Zsa Zsa most likely was intrigued by his silver-colored watch when she decided to chomp down on his hand.

"I feed her all the time. She's a real good monkey. She's never done this before," said Bennett outside of the St. Leonard home on Monday, his hand wrapped in a bloody bandage and his thumb supported by a splint.

Police responded to the house on Kings Road for the rare monkey bite call at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, taking Bennett to Calvert Memorial Hospital for treatment. The bite, which occurred at the base of Bennett's thumb, did not cause serious injuries.

It is legal to keep monkeys as pets in Maryland as long as the owner obtains the proper permits. Zsa Zsa came from Dallas, said Summers, as part of arrangements to rescue her from an abusive home. More recently, Summers bought Isabel, a 2-year-old pigtailed macaque, on the Internet as a companion for Zsa Zsa. Don Baugher, who lives with Summers, said the monkeys
cost about $3,500 each.

Pigtailed macaques are brown monkeys native to Sumatra and Burma. Females generally weigh 12 to 20 pounds and can grow up to two feet tall. Some have been trained in their native lands to climb palm trees and harvest coconuts. Summers said her monkeys live in large steel cages and play in a swimming pool outside.

"They're very good girls. They play rough sometimes, but they're very, very smart. Zsa Zsa knows 'time out,' and 'no teeth," said Summers, who works at a hair salon and was away from her home when Bennett said the monkey attacked. She believes that Zsa Zsa would not do such a thing, and said a more likely explanation for the wound was that Bennett cut himself with a
knife.

"Nobody's been able to provide proof that it happened," she said, adding that "I don't want some animal rights organization camping out on my doorstep."

For now, Zsa Zsa is being kept in quarantine inside the house for 30 days, and county Health Department officials will make periodic checks on the health of the animal, said Ashley Conway, a public health nurse in the disease surveillance and control unit. Conway said there have been "a couple" of monkey bites in Calvert during the past year. The main concern from a health standpoint is that monkeys can transmit the herpes B virus to humans, she said.

"There are concerns when people start to keep wild pets. Even though they were born in captivity, they are wild animals," Conway said. "A good rule of thumb is not to mess with exotic animals. If you see a cute monkey, don't pet it, don't feed it, don't pick it up."

http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/2586253/detail.html

Chimp In Big Rig Takes Trucker By Surprise
Animal's Owner Faces Cruelty, Neglect Charges
POSTED: 11:10 p.m. CST October 27, 2003

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Police in Kansas City were busy Monday, locked in a five-hour standoff with a chimpanzee that had been left alone in the cab of its owner's 18 wheeler, KMBC's Tom Corvin reported.

Ray Wagner discovered the animal in the truck next to him while he was filling out paperwork off Kansas Avenue near Interstate 635.

"Looked like he had a monkey mask on," Wagner said. "And I said, 'You take Halloween seriously, don't you?'" Wagner said the strange companion answered with a "primate sound," but Wagner continued with the conversation.

"I said, 'What's your story?' ... he opened his mouth ... and he smiled at me," Wagner said. "And he started shaking the truck and I said, 'My God, you are real!'"

Wagner called the police, who in turn called for Animal Control. Animal Control called in primate specialist Danny Kolwick, who used a tranquilizer dart to stun the chimp and get it into a cage. The entire ordeal lasted from 10 a.m. until about 3 p.m.

Trucker John Williams said his partner, Mark Archigo, has had the chimpanzee for years, riding cross-country in the cab of Archigo's big rig.

"Her name's 'Suko,' and she's 12 years old," Williams said. "She's just like us. She's a human being, you know?"

Kolwick said Archigo has left the chimp alone several times over the years, but the owner has always gotten the animal back.

Suko was taken to Savannahland Refuge, where she could remain permanently along with 40 other primates. Archigo, who didn't have the proper license to have Suko, faces animal cruelty and neglect charges.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/2565612/detail.html
Monkey Business Causes Chaos In Stamford
Chimp Escaped From Owners

POSTED: 8:36 a.m. EDT October 20, 2003
UPDATED: 7:01 p.m. EDT October 20, 2003

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Travis, a 170-pound chimpanzee, can do lots of things humans do. He waters the flowers, enjoys a glass of wine, brushes his teeth and even watches baseball on television.

But one thing Travis apparently has not mastered is sensing the best time for play time.

The diaper-wearing chimp bolted from a sport utility vehicle driven by his owners Sunday night, commandeered an intersection in the heart of this busy Fairfield County city and held police at bay for a few hours.

Despite the efforts of officers, who arrived in more than a dozen cruisers, the chimp continued playing in the middle of the street, rolling on his back and occasionally charging officers.

"He just wanted to play, but it wasn't the time or place," Sandy Herold, who owns Travis with her husband, Jerry, said Monday.

The chimp, when not closing doors on squad cars to prevent being trapped inside, made occasional runs toward the crowd on all fours.

"He's very strong," Sgt. Richard Phelan said.

By 11:20 p.m. police had succeeded in getting the chimp into its owners' car. Officers pressed their hands against the doors of the SUV to hold the chimp inside.

Travis, who is nine years old, was sleeping it off Monday.

"He got up and had breakfast and went back to bed. He's tired," Herold said.

Travis and his owners will not face charges, police said.

"There is no enforcement action planned," said Assistant Chief Frank Lagan. "It's the first time it got loose."

A new law requires new owners of such animals to have permits, but does not apply retroactively, according to David Leff, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Lynn DellaBianca, the city's animal control officer, said she plans to contact the owners and advise them to take more precautions.

"I don't think it's a good idea to be driving around with a chimpanzee in your car that can easily escape," DellaBianca said. "An animal like this could easily kill a human."

Lagan and Herold said Travis became agitated when someone threw something at the car, perhaps a paper cup.

"When this guy threw this, that's what he thought, that it was part of his play time," Herold said.

Travis is playful and not mean, Herold said. She described the chimp as almost human and said Travis even mourned when Herold's daughter was killed in a car accident a few years ago.

"He would take her picture and hold it," she said. "If I cry he'll lick my tears."

Travis runs his own bath water and prefers ice cream, wine from a tall-stemmed glass and filet mignon over bananas.

"He likes them, but he's not crazy about them," Herold said, acknowledging Travis could stand to lose a few pounds.

Travis also feeds hay to the horses near his house in a more rural part of Stamford. He used to root for the New York Mets when Stamford native Bobby Valentine was the manager, but now he roots for the Yankees.

"He loves baseball. He likes anything with action," Herold said.

Travis will now travel in a more secure van, Herold said. Gone are the glory days when he would ride in his owner's restored Corvettes.

"He would wave to people coming down Summer Street," Herold said. "They were like his cars."

http://www.kirotv.com/weirdheadlines/2504864/detail.html
Toothless Monkey Escapes From Home

POSTED: 8:51 a.m. PDT September 23, 2003
UPDATED: 8:56 a.m. PDT September 23, 2003

GLENVILLE, N.Y. -- Mary Malewicz is miffed over her missing monkey, Mickey.

The black-and-white Capuchin monkey escaped around 4 p.m. Sunday from Malewicz's home, 20 miles northwest of Albany.

Since then, police spotted him in the woods, but the critter just scampered off. Area residents have come across the precocious primate, but it has avoided capture.

Malewicz is even using her other monkey, Kate, to help lure Mickey back home. Mickey is worth about $7,000, she said.

Malewicz says the toothless monkey, whose last owner defanged him after he nipped her, is tame and friendly. She suggests that anyone who spots the monkey should walk up to him and grab his tail.

"He'll wrap his tail around your arm and you can just carry him," she said. "But hang on tight because he'll take off again."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0308090237aug09,1,6595804.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

Pet's monkeyshines set neighborhood scurrying
By Angela Rozas
Tribune staff reporter

August 9, 2003

It was a one-monkey circus.

There were animal control officers, police officers and neighbors scouring North Side streets Friday afternoon looking for a little monkey who had escaped from her home at about 2 a.m.

And after 15 hours on the loose, Hopie, 7, a rhesus monkey about 2 feet tall, was captured and returned to her owner Friday evening.

"I'm just so relieved. She's my baby, and I'm just glad to get her back," Keith Potetti said after being reunited with his pet. He said she escaped from her cage and sneaked out his third-floor apartment early Friday.

Catching Hopie was no monkey business.

The brown monkey was sighted on at least four streets but scampered one step ahead of her pursuers. Finally, at about 5:30 p.m., two animal control officers captured her with a net in an alley in the 4500 block of North Clark Street. She was almost a mile away from home.

"She was pretty scared," said Andrew Galanos, an animal control supervisor. "We got her back and fed her some carrots and peanuts. She's a cutie."

Potetti, called "the monkey man" by neighbors in the 4400 block of North Winchester Avenue, said he bought the monkey for his former wife. He named the monkey Hope (or Hopie) because his ex-wifewas battling cancer.

Potetti said Hopie had never escaped before. But while he was sleeping early Friday, the monkey opened the latch on her cage, opened a window and climbed out. A dog's barking woke Potetti and he tried to coax his pet back inside. He went back to sleep, leaving the window open. In the morning, he called animal control.

Neighbors watched Friday morning as animal control officers and police chased the monkey through an alley behind the apartment.

"There were squad cars and undercover guys and guys walking around with pistols. It looked like they were after Al Capone," said neighbor Steve Weinstein.

Potetti has a second rhesus monkey named Marley. That 3-year-old monkey stayed home, he said.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/2392679/detail.html
Runaway Monkey Captured
'Hoppi' Discovered In North Side Stairwell

August 8, 2003

CHICAGO -- A small monkey that escaped from its owner was finally captured Friday evening, authorities said.

The animal was discovered in a stairwell in the 4500 block of North Clark Street at about 5:30 p.m. and caught using a net, Animal Control Supervisor Andrew Galanos said.

The monkey's name is Hoppi. She is about 25 to 30 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds, Galanos said. The specific breed of the monkey was not known.

Galanos said that on the first attempt, the monkey -- whose owner had told him was friendly -- latched onto his hand with her teeth. He was not injured.

"She just wanted to let me know she was not happy with me," said Galanos.

The animal was captured shortly thereafter, Galanos said.

Galanos did not believe that the animal was illegal, as long as it has the proper vaccinations. He was not certain if it was required to be registered.

The owner picked up the missing pet and took her home around 7:15 p.m., Galanos said. The owner's name was not released.

The animal was spotted throughout the day at numerous locations in neighborhoods on the North Side, police said.

The monkey was seen at 1818 W. Sunnyside Ave., 4400 N. Winchester Ave., and the 1900 and 2100 blocks of North Warner Street, police said. The monkey was also seen in locations east of the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Officers from the Belmont District had managed to surround the monkey around 3 p.m. as it clung to a tree on the 1500 block of West Sunnyside Avenue, Belmont District Lt. Roger Bay said.

Officers from Animal Control arrived at the scene, but the monkey again managed to scramble free, Bay said.

Lincoln Park Zoo spokeswoman Kelly McGrath said animal care experts were "very much against" pet owners taking monkeys or other primates as pets, arguing the animals need space and social groups in which to interact.

http://www.news10.net/storyfull.asp?id=5020
KXTV
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Antelope Teen Finds Monkey at Gas Station

April Lockhart could barely believe her eyes. As she was pulling into an Antelope gas station, she spied a cage by the side of the road. In that cage was a full grown monkey.

Lockhart called the California Highway Patrol, but she had trouble getting them to take her seriously. "They were like, 'A monkey in a cage? You found a monkey in a cage, are you serious?' And I was like, 'Yes, I found a monkey!'"

Lockhart also called Krysta Sponaugle, a friend who has experience with exotic animals. "I've had everything from alligators to emus and rattlesnakes," said Sponaugle.

While Sponaugle consulted the Internet on what to feed the monkey, the CHP called the SPCA. "It's from the macaque family. It's a senior, in excess we're thinking, of 20, possibly as old as 35," said David Dickenson of the SPCA.

As to where the monkey came from, April believes it either fell or was pushed off the back of a truck. The SPCA has theories, too, but isn't sharing them just yet.

The monkey might end up at a local zoo. If it does, April has a plan. "Take my whole family to see it, show him off, be like: 'I found that monkey!'" said Lockhart.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
August 6, 2003, Wednesday
Tighter rules sought on exotic pets after trade, risks increase

BY: By Marilynn Marchione

MILWAUKEE _ It was supposed to be a lesson on how tame poisonous snakes are.

Virginia Day was holding one of the 160 serpents at the "zoo" she ran from her house trailer in Manitowoc County. Snakes are fine if you know how to handle them, she told a visitor and his son. In fact, she had hand-fed 18 baby chicks to this 7-foot Indian cobra the day before.

"I knew he wouldn't get angry and bite me," Day recalled, "but I never thought he'd think I was food."

As the horrified pair watched, the snake attacked her, and a lesson in safety on that day 10 years ago changed dramatically.

A Flight for Life helicopter whisked Day to a Milwaukee hospital as zoos throughout the Midwest pooled their supplies of rare cobra anti-venin. Thirty-two vials were rushed to the city to save her life.

Day spent three weeks in the hospital, and because she was on public aid, taxpayers paid for her care just as they had after she was bitten by a South African puff adder a year earlier.

Exotic pets have injured and sometimes killed their owners or other people. But the recent monkeypox outbreak, which sickened at least 72 people in six states, underscores a higher price we all pay: a threat to public health from emerging infectious diseases.

The exotic pet industry is an ideal system for breeding novel germs, which puts the public at risk in ways that people who buy, sell and handle such animals can't possibly know, health experts say. They are calling for tighter regulation.

Industry experts acknowledge that exotics can spread disease, but they argue that the chance of catching an illness from them is small.

___

The dangers posed by exotic animals have been magnified by the Internet and increased international trade, which have made it easier for people to acquire more wild animals and more diverse species from remote lands.

"We now have this potential to make it literally one global infectious disease world," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

The monkeypox outbreak illustrates how a germ can be unleashed on an entire continent, putting people who never had contact with an exotic animal at risk of getting a potentially disfiguring, even deadly, disease.

One week, the virus was in a giant pouched rat in an African rain forest; a few weeks later, in a 3-year-old Wisconsin farm girl playing with a cute little prairie dog her mother got at a 4-H swap meet.

The prairie dog unwittingly became a conduit for the virus after it was sucked from the ground by what amounts to a giant vacuum cleaner and then housed in close quarters with imported African rodents.

"Basically you factored out an ocean and half a continent by moving these animals around and ultimately juxtaposing them in a warehouse or a garage somewhere," said Jeffrey Davis, Wisconsin's epidemiologist.

Imagine what would happen, health experts say, if the germ had infected cats or dogs instead of prairie dogs. Or if the germ had been Ebola or severe acute respiratory syndrome _ far more deadly diseases _ instead of monkeypox.

"This one, fortunately, looks like we're going to get through this without any fatalities. The next one, we may not be so fortunate," said Jim Kazmierczak, Wisconsin's public health veterinarian.

For years, animal rights advocates have called for restrictions or bans on the trade of exotic and wild animals. Groups such as the American Veterinary Medical Association have lobbied for the same thing because of the public health risk.

But such calls have fallen on deaf ears. A temporary ban on importing African rodents was put in place because of monkeypox, but animals from other countries continue to stream into the United States and breeders keep raising and selling exotics on captive-bred farms in this country.

Will the monkeypox outbreak spur broader regulation?

"I think it's going to move now. As we say, opportunity knocks, and I think it's knocked pretty loudly here," said James Hughes, longtime director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"People have looked very hard for the source in nature of Ebola virus, and they haven't found it," Hughes added. "I certainly don't want to find it as the result of the importation of an infected animal."

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he would bring the exotic pet issue to the Council on Public Health Preparedness on which he serves. It reports to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

"It is a major public health issue," Benjamin said. "There's a growing recognition of the risk. There clearly needs to be much more aggressive federal action on this."

Some in the industry favor increased oversight.

Marshall Meyers, executive vice president of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, said he was surprised to learn that before the monkeypox outbreak no health protocols, such as a quarantine, had applied to the importation of African rodents. Imported birds and some mammals are quarantined when they enter the U.S., Meyers said.

Permits should be required for ownership of big cats, bears, venomous reptiles and other dangerous exotics, Meyers said. That would help ensure that the animals are in knowledgeable hands, he said.

Meyers acknowledged that exotic animals can spread disease, but the possibility of them bringing in a new illness is relatively small, he said.

Since the outbreak, the council, a 2,000-member trade group, says it is monitoring more than 500 legislative initiatives affecting the industry.

___

The risk of injury from exotics has been evident for many years, and the victims often are children, notes the Animal Protection Institute, which has cataloged hundreds of examples in recent years of injuries caused by exotic or wild animals.

They include a 3-year-old Kentucky boy killed by a relative's tiger and a 6-year-old Florida girl attacked by a friend's cougar.

In southeastern Wisconsin, the story of a runaway monkey shows how bystanders can be harmed when owners cannot control their animals.

The monkey smashed through a porch wall, ran across George Mutter's backyard in Kansasville and fled into his garage. "I had the garage door open, and I didn't see it," Mutter, now 76, recalled after the Japanese macaque attacked him on an August morning in 2000.

Mutter was closing the garage door when the monkey suddenly jumped from the car and grabbed him by the waist.

"I tried to get it away, and then it slid down my leg and either bit me or scraped me," Mutter said.

Mutter fought off the monkey, and it ran away but turned and attacked again, according to a police report.

The monkey's next target was Renee DeGroot, who was attacked while delivering mail in her car. "Something hit me on the elbow, and all of a sudden I was bleeding," she said.

As a Racine County sheriff's deputy approached in a squad car, the monkey attacked DeGroot again. DeGroot, now 44, received three or four stitches.

The monkey's owner, Jacquelyn T. Thacker, pleaded no contest to a charge of interfering with a police officer and was ordered to pay a $335 fine, according to court records. The monkey was euthanized. Thacker could not be reached for comment.

When deputies talked to Thacker, though, they learned that she had taught her pet, Ronnie, to open soda cans and drink from them. Ronnie liked to crush them when he was done. Thacker told deputies she had found four empty beer cans left over from a neighbor's party; all appeared to have been crushed by Ronnie.

Whether the 8-year-old monkey was drunk or just excited was never clear.

___

Injuries involving exotic pets have been reported in virtually every state, but infections are even more common.

A 72-year-old Boston woman got pneumonia and died in 1998 from a fungal infection she acquired from a pet cockatoo, likely from airborne exposure to its cage droppings. She had had no direct contact with the bird.

Salmonella is the most common infection linked to exotic animals; it's carried by iguanas, snakes, lizards, turtles and other reptiles. More than 80,000 infections occur each year in the United States, said Fred Angulo, an epidemiologist who has studied the disease for a decade at the CDC.

Most victims are infants or young children who are least able to fend off the germs and often are infected without direct contact with the reptile, the CDC reports. Many develop deadly bloodstream infections or other illnesses.

A 6-week-old Ohio boy got meningitis from a pet turtle whose food and water bowls were washed in the kitchen sink, where they may have come into contact with items used to feed the child.

In Green Bay, Wis., a 5-month-old girl died in December 1998 of a strain of salmonella identical to one later cultured from the stool of an iguana in her home. Health officials think she became infected from crawling on carpeting that contained the animal's droppings. Salmonella bacteria have been known to remain viable for more than a year in the droppings.

"It's horrible. And the parents didn't know" the risk, said Kazmierczak, the state public health veterinarian.

Only a fraction of the infections that occur in Wisconsin are recognized for what they are and reported, said Davis, the state epidemiologist. One-third of the 117 reptile-associated salmonella infections reported in Wisconsin from 1998 to 2003 involved babies.

Breeders who handle reptiles acknowledge that the animals carry salmonella and can pass it to humans. But Kevin Hanley, a Milwaukee-area breeder of snakes and geckos, said good hygiene can limit the risk.

Chris Roscher, co-owner of L.A. Reptile, a large importer in Los Angeles, agreed.

"The people who make a big issue out of it (are) ridiculous," she said.

The problem was worse when a small turtle known as the red-eared slider was a popular pet in the early 1970s. Reptile-associated salmonella cases dropped 77 percent nationwide after turtles smaller than 4 inches were banned in 1975.

Herpes and hepatitis worries led the CDC to ban importation of primates as pets in the mid-1970s, and tick-borne heart water disease prompted an emergency ban on selling certain African tortoises in 2000, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

___

Kazmierczak said there are options short of a ban.

For pet reptiles, states could require sellers to provide information about the health hazards to anyone buying an animal. In Kansas, buyers sign forms acknowledging they have received such information, he said.

A CDC survey in March 1999 found that only three states had such regulations. And three states ban reptiles in day care centers and long-term care facilities.

Another option: require people to get a license or permit to have an exotic or dangerous pet. Such a measure could help ensure that they know how to take care of the animal and prevent injuries.

However, some fear that too much regulation could backfire. "You've got to be careful that you don't drive this underground," said Benjamin of the public health association.

For some animals, such as venomous snakes and large exotic cats such as cougars and tigers, a ban might be the only way to prevent injury or illness, some say.

"A venomous rattlesnake is a dangerous product," and it may need to be regulated the way other dangerous things such as guns are, said Stephen Hargarten, chief of emergency medicine at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Craig Pelke, supervisor of the reptile house at the Milwaukee County Zoo, said very few people know how to safely keep a poisonous snake.

"Snakes are escape artists, and when you've got something that can kill you, it's just way too dangerous," he said.

The zoo regularly gets calls to help rescue people bitten by venomous snakes, said Deputy Director Bruce Beehler. Earlier this year, it rushed anti-venin to Minnesota, only to be stuck with the bill when the patient's insurance company refused to pay.

"The county taxpayers paid because of somebody in Duluth kissing their rattlesnake," he said.

At the CDC alone, 175 staffers have been working on monkeypox. Hundreds more at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies have been testing samples, tracing animals, investigating and treating human cases, and working on ways to contain the outbreak. State and city employees also have worked on it.

"We don't have people sitting around here waiting for stuff to happen," said the CDC's Hughes. "When things like this happen, we put other important things on the back burner."

Meanwhile, Virginia Day now lives with her mother in Algoma. Day has five pet king snakes, which are not venomous, and she said she's learned her lesson. "I've changed my opinions a lot about how you handle animals," she said.

Day, now 55, used to charge $3 for people to see the "Middle Earth Reptile Zoo" inside her 14-by-72-foot house trailer when she lived in Manitowoc County. She once had 167 snakes, plus lizards, in glass cages stacked to the ceiling, some covered only with light screens.

Day now thinks that people younger than 18 should not be able to buy poisonous snakes, but she defends the right for anyone else to own them.

"I think they're beautiful and that people need to learn more about them," she said.

Tulsa World (Oklahoma)
July 30, 2003 Wednesday Final Home Edition
Monkey see? Then do call the authorities

BY: RALPH W. MARLER World Staff Writer

An Osage County motorist says she saw an adult and two baby simians run for cover. PAWHUSKA -- Home, home on the range, where the deer and monkeys play.

Monkeys? In Osage County?

That was the reaction Tuesday when the Osage County Sheriff's Office received a telephone call that monkeys were loose along a state highway.

Sheriff Russell Cottle said the caller reported seeing an adult monkey and two small monkeys along Oklahoma 123 between Barnsdall and Bartlesville.

Deputy Rick Harper searched an area five miles north of Barnsdall but found nothing, Chief Investigator Wes Penland said.

The caller said she stopped on the side of the road when she saw a large white-faced monkey.

After the woman stopped, the adult monkey grabbed two little monkeys and ran into nearby woods, the caller told the dispatcher, Penland said.

Harper checked with the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Pre serve about three miles away but was told that the sanctuary did not have monkeys among its wild animals, Penland said.

The preserve advertises bison, elk and longhorn cattle among the wildlife roaming its 3,600 acres.

Harper found no sign of monkeys after an hour of searching along the road, Penland said.

A nearby resident, who once kept monkeys, told Harper that none of his monkeys had ever escaped.

Even if they had, he said, they probably could not have survived in the wild.

That's true, said Paul Louderback, an animal registrar for the Tulsa Zoo.

"I would guess it wouldn't, because of the heat and not being able to find the food," he said.

If there were babies, then the search for food and water would be of even more importance, he said.

Primates have a diet of fruits and vegetables, which are not likely to be in abundance in the hot Osage County wilds, he said.

If the monkeys were domesticated, they would not be equipped for the wild, either in searching for food or identifying predators, Louderback said.

"We get calls like this all the time," he said, usually of exotic animals escaping from their owners.

Penland said deputies will continue to monitor the area from time to time for any signs of monkeys.

He said anyone seeing a monkey should not approach it or attempt to capture it.

Louderback agreed, saying primates bite, especially if protecting young animals.

He advised contacting a veterinarian who could use a tranquilizer gun to subdue the animal so that it could be handled safely.

If a monkey is found, the Tulsa Zoo would help find it a home, but not at the zoo, he said.

Veterinarians in Pawhuska and Bartlesville said they had not treated monkeys or known of anyone who kept them.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/03AreaEAST06072303.htm

Strip club reports monkey mascot missing

By JAY STAPLETON
STAFF WRITER

Last update: 22 July 2003

HOLLY HILL -- Small, furry and friendly, a strip-club mascot named Kiki was reported missing Tuesday, filling the pet monkey's owner with dread.

"I'll do anything," TeeJay Flores said. "Just bring me my baby home, please."

Flores, 35, who owns Chic's on Ridgewood Avenue, said she was visiting New York last week and left Kiki -- a 5-year-old Weeper Capuchin monkey -- in a cage at her home. A friend had agreed to care for the 2-foot tall simian.

Flores, who said she is licensed to keep wildlife as pets, flew home Sunday when she learned the 8-pound monkey had either been stolen or escaped. "Somebody could have picked her up," she said.

Since then, Flores and friends have scoured her neighborhood near Florence Court searching for the animal. She reported the monkey missing to Holly Hill police, who sent an Animal Control officer to make a report.

She also hired private detective Marc Vescovi to investigate. "We're going to do what we can," said Vescovi, 37. "We have not been able to contact (the friend) as of yet."

Flores said Kiki is well-known at the strip club, where she has flirted with customers for years. She eats fruits, leaves and even pizza, Flores said.

The monkey wears a diaper when she goes out in public, but dislikes other human habits, Flores said. "She hates clothes."

Vescovi said he was trying to get the word out to prevent the monkey from being sold on E-bay or through black market animal dealers. Although he failed to speculate on who might have stolen Kiki, he said he was following leads in the case.

Flores fears money might be one motive if the monkey was stolen. "She's worth thousands," she said. "Kiki is worth top dollar, because of her friendliness."

She spent part of Tuesday night trying to determine how much money she should offer for Kiki's safe return.

Chic's bartender Gia Wetmore said she hoped for the best. "She's so lovable; she's like a baby girl."

Flores said Kiki is sensitive to temperature changes and she fears the monkey won't have the necessary life experience to survive outdoors, away from the stage where topless women strut their stuff for dollar bills.

"She wasn't raised in the wild," she said. "She has no survival skills."

http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1015165&t=Local+News&c=2,1015165
Last Updated: 9:09 pm, Friday, July 18th, 2003

Monkey attack at fair spawns lawsuit
By Todd Ruger

Both sides of the lawsuit call it unusual: Mississippi Valley Fair vendor owns monkey. Monkey allegedly bites woman. Woman sues vendor and the fair.

But the fair general manager said that is only part of the reason why the animal attraction, which allowed fairgoers to take a picture with the monkey or give the creature money just for the amusement of watching it place the cash in an apron, will not return when the 2003 fair begins July 29 in Davenport.

Bob Fox, the fair's general manager, said he likes to rotate vendors every few years and that Gerald Eppel of Texas and his Monkey Business act had been at the fair in 2001 and 2002.

"I'd have him back," Fox said. "He's a good performer. It's a good act. I don't know what happened to the animal."

Scott County resident Leeann Jones has a different opinion, claiming that the monkey owned by Eppel caused scratches and abrasions on her neck while she visited the fair with her son Aug. 4, lawyer William Bribriesco said.

One of three monkeys in the act jumped around, hit her in the head, made noises and bit her as she posed for a photograph, Bribriesco said. There are a couple of photos of it, he added.

"This particular monkey went a little berserk," he said. "We just feel, especially when you've got a vendor like this, and potentially with small children being around, both the vendor and the Mississippi Valley Fair have a duty to make sure it is safe."

Jones went to the doctor the next day, was interviewed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and had to undergo tests for herpes, HIV, hepatitis and rabies, he said.

"She still has not been cleared completely," he said. The monkey pierced the skin and caused abrasions, he added, but the defendants say the monkey had no teeth.

Fox said the monkey carried no diseases, had been given all of its required vaccinations and was wearing a leash.

"People love the little monkey. They just do. It's quite a quaint specialty act that's popular wherever he goes," Fox said, adding that Eppel has been performing for more than 30 years. "Unfortunately, things like this can happen and happened here."

Jones filed suit in April against Eppel and the Mississippi Valley Fair Inc., seeking damages of more than $5,000. The case still is in the early legal stages.

Eppel, the lawsuit states, was negligent "by failing to adequately keep his monkey under control; by failing to properly restrain a wild animal; by violating (a section of the) Iowa Code in reference to unrestrained animals."

The suit claims the fair was negligent in allowing unrestrained wild animals on the premises, by failing to adequately and properly supervise vendors upon the premises and by failing to correct a safety hazard that it knew, or should have known, existed to its patrons.

The lawsuit seeks past and future medical expenses, damages for pain and suffering, including mental anguish, permanent injury and disability, lost wages and future loss of earning capacity.

Todd Ruger can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or truger@qctimes.com.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
July 8, 2003, Tuesday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
Furry primate caught in Buckhannon

A furry fugitive captured near West Virginia Wesleyan College was to be reunited with its owner Tuesday.

The lemur - a primate with big eyes, soft fur and a long tail - apparently escaped from its residence while its owner was out of state. A petsitter reported the lemur missing and the animal was soon spotted near the college.

Police and an animal control officer found the lemur asleep in a tree Saturday.

The animal control officer easily caught the lemur with a noose, said Janella Cochran, manager of the Lewis-Upshur Dog Pound, where the animal was kept after its capture.

Lemurs are indigenous to the Madagascar region but can be kept as pets in the U.S. West Virginia law requires a permit to keep exotic animals, Cochran said Tuesday.

Police have been contacted by the unidentified owner, who planned to pick up the lemur sometime Tuesday, Cochran said.

Buckhannon Police Lt. Darrell Bennett said the owner, who is in the process of moving to the area from Georgia, has been notified that he must get a permit for the animal.

Cochran said the lemur escaped from two separate cages at the shelter before being moved to a plastic kennel.

Cochran said the lemur seems to have a sweet personality, and likes grapes and bananas.

"It's been different," Cochran said of the animal's stay at the shelter. "Dogs and cats are about all we see, but this kind of broke the same old thing."

"We will miss it."

http://wcpo.com/news/2003/local/06/13/jake.html
Monkey Caught After Chase In Elmwood Place

Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Stacy Puzo
6/13/03 3:04:46 PM

Neighbors in Elmwood Place found themselves in the middle of some real monkey business this morning.

"I was walking to the mailbox and Irene says, that's a big cat and I said, that's not a cat, that's a monkey," said Alice Derrenkamp, neighbor.

What Derrenkamp saw was Jake, a Japanese Snow monkey.

Somehow he managed to escape his home at the corner of Locust and Highland Avenue and then took off running around the neighborhood.

The chase ended when Jake gave into his craving for an ice cream cone.

9News was told Jake is also partial to gummy worms.

Tucson Citizen
May 20, 2003 Tuesday
Escaped monkey wreaks havock

BY: A.J. Flick, Staff, ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

The capuchin was cute, but teacher Judy Miller was glad to get it out of her house.

By A.J. FLICK

Teacher Judy Miller can handle monkey business in the classroom - she just didn't expect to find it at home.

Miller, who teaches fourth grade at Picture Rocks Intermediate School, was leaving her Northwest Side home for church May 4 when she saw an unusual animal in her yard.

"Of course, your mind just isn't processing the information because it looked like a monkey, but there are no monkeys in the desert," she said. "I thought it was some kind of desert animal."

After Miller returned from church, the sleeping critter was curled up by her back door.

"OK, this is not a wild animal," Miller said to herself. "Wild animals in the desert don't sleep on your back step."

Miller's calls for assistance eventually led to Erin Allan, who rehabilitates wild animals turned into pets and makes them think more like their primal selves before she sends them to more natural settings.

Willie, an 8-year-old capuchin monkey, had been under her care for about four years and was on his way to the Primarily Primates Sanctuary in San Antonio when he panicked and escaped. Allan posted signs in the neighborhood for the lost monkey and was relieved to hear he was safe.

"He did very well," Allan said. "I think because people leave out food and water for javelinas and so forth, he could find sustenance before he moved on."

Allan estimates Willie traveled about two miles over four days to get to Miller's house.

Before Willie's captors arrived, Willie played hard to get. Finally, Miller settled inside to grade papers at her living room table, where she could see Willie napping on her car.

"When he woke up, he started smiling at me," Miller said. "I asked Erin, 'What does it mean when a monkey is grinning at you?' And she said, 'He likes you! He's flirting with you!'

"Pretty soon, he came closer and closer, and finally he put his face up to the glass, and he was just smiling and smiling at me, making all these soft chitter-chatter noises - very obviously flirting. There was a big love affair going on."

The plan was to capture Willie and take him back home. Five minutes, tops. Wrong.

They decided to lure Willie into the house, using Miller as bait, then capture him. But before long, Willie was wreaking havoc in Miller's house while she was trapped in a bedroom with her dog and cats.

Hours later, a tranquilizer gun was used on Willie, but the stubborn primate would not succumb even after three darts. By that time, Willie had gotten into permanent markers and into an ink bottle, leaving paw prints on the carpet and walls.

Finally, Willie was captured with a long pole equipped with a grabber.

"When I walked in my house, it looked like a war zone," said Miller. "I was in shock."

Allan not only helped clean up but also paid for everything, including an oven door that Willie smashed.

The moral of the story, Allan said, is that primates are not pets.

"I'm always battling the false impression that these animals are so cute and so lovely and so wonderful, but they're not," Allan said. "They're dangerous animals. Males get big, and they don't always stay tame."

Willie, Allan reported, is safely in the Texas sanctuary among his own kind, perhaps relating his adventures.

Miller took photos to prove her encounter with Willie.

"I tell people there was a monkey in my house, and everybody's reaction is the same: 'A what?' " Miller said.

"I made a photo album, and it was a hit at school. They passed it around from room to room."

http://www.suntimes.co.za/2003/05/11/news/gauteng/njhb03.asp

Sunday 11 May 2003
Monkey goes ape and bites man's ears
By Masego Lehihi

A Pretoria man had both his ears bitten by a marmoset monkey.

Arthur Knights, 77, from Waverley, north of Pretoria, said the monkey, which is believed to have come from the neighbourhood, jumped on him and ran around his kitchen after he opened his front door.

"He raced up my leg, rushed to my right ear and took a bite out of it, and then raced around my back and took a bite out of my left ear," said Knights.

Although Knights sustained minor injuries, the marmoset monkey suffered more pain as it later bit right through its own hind leg. It now has six stitches and three legs instead of four, after one of the legs had to be amputated.

The 20cm monkeys, which cost R2 500 locally from breeders or pet shops, are known to be a nuisance and 6 000 of them are believed to be in Joburg and Pretoria.

"They're not pets; they're wild animals," said Wendy Macleod, who runs the World Primate Sanctuary, a home for monkeys in Linbro Park.

She called for a ban on keeping them as free-running pets.

The 38-year-old, who has more than 200 monkeys on her property, said the monkeys become deranged because they don't get the opportunity to grow up in the wild.

The marmoset is now recovering at Macleod's sanctuary. She has named it Pringle.

The Arizona Republic
May 3, 2003 Saturday Final chaser Edition
3 DAYS OF MONKEYSHINES ENOUGH, COOLIO RETURNS

BY: By Kate Nolan, Scottsdale Republic

No one knows why Coolio, a 7-year-old Capuchin monkey owned by Danny and Krishna Almond, broke out of his cage, turned the key on the front door and took off last week for a three-day rampage along a wash in Fountain Hills.

The Almonds quickly tacked up signs all over town: "Lost Monkey. This is our Child!! Please call if you have seen him." They placed an ad in The Arizona Republic.

The phone soon chimed. Coolio was in the trees, he was in the wash and in garages, filching countless bottles of designer water. He sneaked into several cars, making off with a bag of potato chips from one and a chapstick from another.

Danny, Krishna and their 2-year-old son Noah, Coolio's best buddy, scoured the neighborhood by car and on foot, always arriving a flash too late.

Coolio, a traditional organ-grinder type monkey, looks like the spindly one that got drunk in Dr. Dolittle. Capuchins are native to the forests of southern Central America, but are adaptable. They usually survive on fruit and insects.

Coolio was less than a year old when Danny Almond, 38, bought him in California, but state law made him an outlaw there. They moved to Arizona in 1994 because it's legal to own a monkey here, although Arizona doesn't allow pet monkeys in public places. They bite and can spread hepatitis types A and B.

Maybe Coolio had cabin fever.

"He was going to be my only child," Danny said. That was before he and Krishna, 29, met four years ago and before Noah came along. The family also includes two dogs and a talking bird.

Danny said he knew that Coolio was safe, because sightings kept being reported. But he worried.

"He knows how to use a ratchet wrench. He knows how to use a screwdriver. He knows too much," Danny said.

Finally, Coolio tired of his game and showed up in a neighbor's driveway earlier this week. When the Almonds rushed over to retrieve him, Coolio sat in the driveway with his arms outstretched to Krishna.

The Almonds brought him home and gave him a bath, and he went right to bed with his favorite teddy bear on the family sofa, Coolio's favorite bed.

http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/news/archive/local_9966468.shtml
Posted Apr. 25, 2003

Monkey business comes with 2 citations

By Andy Nelesen
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

GREEN BAY - Green Bay police want to be done with all the monkey business.

Lt. Bill Galvin said Thursday that police plan to issue two citations to Tracie Cornelius, the owner of a Capuchin monkey that got loose after a trip to an east-side bar.

"We tried to make contact with (Cornelius), but her answering machine message said she was spending quality time with Jasper the monkey," Galvin said. "We will keep trying to make contact with her. We want to talk to her about this."

The municipal tickets - one for having an animal without a permit and another for having an animal at large - each carry a fine of $658.

In an interview with the Press-Gazette on Thursday, Cornelius, 30, said she was not aware of the citations, but had just talked with the city's humane officer about starting the procedure to make Jasper legal.

Until then, Cornelius knows Jasper has to live in exile - outside the city limits - or face $500 a day in fines. Cornelius said she talked with police and other officials before buying the $4,000 critter from a Florida breeder two years ago. She didn't think she needed a permit.

"I talked to the police and never gave another thought about it," Cornelius said. "I went about it like he was legal.

"If I had any inkling he was illegal, why would I call the police to help me find him?"

Galvin said once police make phone contact with Cornelius, they'll mail her the citations. She'll get her day in court and have a chance to argue her side.

Police say the animal raises concerns because monkeys can transmit human diseases and known rabies vaccinations are not as reliable as shots for dogs.

But Galvin said he doesn't expect officers to spend a lot of time dealing with the case.

"In the overall scheme of things, this is really a minor issue," Galvin said. "We're not going to expend a lot of resources on this."

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_9899766.shtml
Posted Apr. 22, 2003
Monkey on the lam in Green Bay gets its owner in a jam

Official says she doesn't have permit for missing primate
By Paul Srubas, psrubas@greenbaypressgazette.com

So a lady walks into a bar, and she's got this monkey on her shoulder …

No, this isn't a joke setup. It's a story about a missing monkey and the possibly ugly and sad custody battle that likely will ensue if and when the monkey is found.

So let's try it again: Tracie Cornelius of Green Bay walked into the Rock City Pub on East Main Street Saturday, and she had Jasper, a 2-year-old black-capped Capuchin monkey, on her shoulder.

Cornelius, 30, who describes herself as Jasper's "mom," had done this before, and Jasper normally would leave her shoulder to explore but wouldn't stray too far. Only this time, when a bar patron walked in the back door, Jasper seized the moment and dashed through the opening.

"I think he just got scared, and when he got outside, it was raining and everything, so he took off," Cornelius said.

Cornelius and the bar owner, Susie Delfosse, and bar patrons who have come to know Jasper all rushed out to look for the monkey, which was much too fast for all of them.

"He's a little guy, and smart," Delfosse said. "Anywhere that he could get in that's warm, any nook or cranny he could get into, he would."

Now, more than two days later, the search is more than a race against time; it's a race against Green Bay Animal Control Officer Ellen Church, who says Cornelius does not have the required permit to own a monkey. Under Green Bay ordinance, Jasper is an exotic animal, and, as such, requires a special permit, Church said.

"I haven't issued such a permit, nor would I," said Church, who expressed concerns that monkeys can bite. "She can't have it. It will have to be taken into my custody. Whether she gets to it first and I don't find out about it, I don't know, but I'll follow up on it. And if I get a call, I'll try to catch him first."

That comes as a surprise to Cornelius, who thought she needed no license. She bought the animal two years ago over the Internet for $4,000 and said she checked with Green Bay police before the breeders shipped Jasper to her from Florida.

"The police said now that if they find him, they'll hand him over to the humane officer," Cornelius said. "I said, 'What's with this?' But I'm going to find him first."

Searchers will have their hands full, predicted NEW Zoo director Neil Anderson.

"Right now, the monkey has the advantage," he said. "A Capuchin is very intelligent, and he's arboreal, so he's likely to be up in the trees or something. … If he's in a garage, you'll want to look up in the rafters."

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1050044581102B255&set_id=1
Kid loses fingers in Chinese monkey business

April 11 2003 at 09:03AM

Hong Kong - A monkey bit off two fingers of a two-year-old boy who stuck his hand into its cage at the Shanghai Zoo in China, a news report said on Friday.

The toddler crawled through a fence and stretched his hand into the monkey's cage to offer it food when he was taken to the zoo by his aunt and grandmother.

His aunt accused the zoo of negligence, saying the fence was too easy for the toddler to crawl through, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.

Surgeons reattached the boy's fingers but doctors say his chance of regaining full use of them is only 30 percent, the newspaper said. - Sapa-DPA

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030314p2a00m0dm002000c.html

Escaped monkey runs amok in Yokohama
(Mainichi Shimbun, March 14, 2003)

YOKOHAMA -- A pet monkey escaped from its owner here and ran around the city, biting four people before it was subdued, police said.

Police received an emergency call at about 2:05 a.m. Thursday saying a monkey was on the loose in a section of Yokohama's Aoba-ku.

A 20-year-old man managed to catch the monkey and hand it over to local police but the monkey bit him in the process, leaving him with light injuries to his right hand. Police said three other residents also reported being bitten after the monkey escaped.

The simian, which belonged to a 38-year-old self-employed man in the ward, was reportedly a Japanese monkey measuring about 80 centimeters in height.

It had reportedly escaped by biting through a 10-meter-long rope with a diameter of about 6 millimeters. The owner was reportedly absent at the time the monkey escaped.

New Straits Times " Features

Health: Danger of keeping primates
Dr S. Vellayan

4 March 2003: Primates should not be kept as pets because they are not only
unpredictable but can also transmit infections such as dysentry, herpes
virus, hepatitis, scabies, helminths and even tuberculosis to humans.

THERE are 12 species of primates in Malaysia. People are fascinated by these animals and keep them as pets because they resemble humans in terms of physical attributes, personalities and social behaviour.

Primates most commonly kept as pets are the long tail macaques, pig tail macaques, lar gibbons, siamang and orang utan.

Generally, they need a lot of attention and are expensive to feed. Every year, primates are offered to Zoo Negara by people, who, after having bought them as pets, eventually found them unmanageable. In 1986, about 30 such primates were given to Zoo Negara. Monkeys and the larger apes are easily enraged, strong, temperamental, unpredictable and dangerous. They will readily attack and bite. Completely tame and trustworthy monkeys are rare.

Infections which have been transmitted from primates to humans include dysentry, the herpes virus, hepatitis, scabies, helminths and probably tuberculosis while amoebiasis, rabies and fungal skin infections are rarely transmitted.

Doctors puzzled by the origin of such infections would do well to ask, especially of children with severe encephalitis, whether they have been in contact with a pet money or been to a zoo.

The herpes virus (Herpes B) is transmitted through contact with apparently healthy monkeys such as the macaques through bites, scratches and contamination of the wounds with monkey saliva or tissue.

Typically, the illness starts about seven to 14 days after a bite or scratch, often with vesicles and pain at the site of injury. There is also inflammation of the lymph nodes, with cold sores on lips and tongues.

Monkeys are susceptible to rabies, which is usually spread by the bite of an infected animal. So far, about 16 cases of rabies in primates, which results in disturbances in the central nervous system, have been reported.

Young Macaca is susceptible to the measles virus, acquired from contact with humans suffering from it. The animal in turn will spread the virus around. Other hosts include the squirrel monkeys, macaques and gibbons. Symptoms in both animals and Man are skin rash, conjunctivitis, fever and facial swelling.

Shigella affecting the primates such as gibbons and orang utans readily infects Man. Fortunately the transmission of the organism to humans is rare. The three common species of shigella organism are Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei and Shigella Schmitzi. The symptoms to be seen in both animals and Man are stomach and intestinal bleeding.

The fatality of the disease was noted in a case when a child licked an ice cream touched by a monkey in a pet shop. In another case, a child died from shigellosis after eating a cake which had been partially eaten by a monkey. Workers in laboratories and zoos are aware of the danger and they take adequate precautions.

Salmonella is common in monkeys, gibbons and orang utans, with animal to animal transmission through water and faecal contamination.

Man, too, can easily acquire the infections from pet monkeys, who are "carriers'. Similarly, human carriers may pass the salmonella bacteria to monkeys directly or indirectly as has occurred in most Asian zoos. The symptoms vary from mild intestinal bleeding to rapid and fatal blood poisoning.

Monkeys are also highly susceptible to the human, bovine and avian tubercle bacilli, which may result in sudden respiratory arrest, with fine lesions on the skin, bones and internal organs.

The Expert Committee on Zoonoses of the WHO/FAO refers to monkeys as the most important source of human tuberculosis infection after cattle. In Malaysia, primate tuberculosis is very rare.

Meanwhile, the causative organism of meliodosis is pseudomonas pseudomallei. This dissease has been reported in all Malaysian primates except the slow loris and proboscis monkeys. This is an important zoonotic disease for Malaysians as its outbreak has been reported in local zoos and primate colonies.

This disease is pathogenic to man and the clinical signs are acute bleeding in the stomach and intestines and blood poisoning.

Endoparasitic diseases such as pinworms, tapeworms, whipworm and roundworms are not serious problems as they can be treated easily. The hosts (which include Man), are apes, langurs and macaques, amongst others. The symptoms vary from dysentry, chronic diarrhoea to anaemia.

The common protozoal zoonotic diseases are amoebiasis, balantidiasis, giardiasis and malaria. The hosts are apes, macaque and monkeys while the clinical signs are usually diarrhoea which may be accompanied by mucus and blood. In the case of malaria, high temperature and anaemia are detected.

In Malaysia, sporadic cases of these diseases are reported in humans. Zoonotic filariasis also occur in Malaysia.

Veterinarians should discourage the public from keeping monkeys and apes as they drain the natural population and do not make good pets. Today's gentle pet may give a nasty bite tomorrow.

http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/030203dnmetmonkey.5fdd5.html

What's best for Leroy?
Owners want custody of monkey; city says he needs better home

03/02/2003
By COLLEEN McCAIN NELSON / The Dallas Morning News

Leroy hasn't been the same since he found himself in the middle of a custody dispute.

The 6-year-old has little interest in his toys and spends much of his time pouting in the corner.

Both sides say they just want Leroy to be happy and healthy.

But Dallas city officials and Leroy's owners don't agree on what's best for the golden spider monkey.

For six years, Blake Deeter and Joe Williams raised the little monkey with the big brown eyes. After buying Leroy from a breeder, the roommates centered their lives on the monkey who cried when they left the house and waited by the window for them to return.

"You basically adapt your life to the monkey," Mr. Deeter said. "We don't travel because we can't leave him. We don't have people over."

City officials said monkeys aren't meant to be pets and are prohibited by city ordinance. Animal control seized Leroy in December after he got loose in his owners' Oak Cliff neighborhood.

The city, which does not have the facilities or personnel needed to care for a monkey, sent Leroy to live in an animal center in Plano. Dallas officials said they plan to seek custody of Leroy and eventually place him in an animal sanctuary, even if that requires taking their case to court.

Leroy's owners said they want their monkey and are prepared to move to a city that will allow them to keep their longtime companion.

For now, Leroy lives in a large cage at the Living Materials Center in Plano. A sign warns visitors that he suffers from rickets, paralysis and "un-monkey behavior."

"He was never allowed to act like a monkey in captivity," said Jim Dunlap, curator of the center. "He was probably coddled and cuddled like a child."

Monkeys simply are not suited to live in houses with humans, even when their owners have the best intentions, he said.

"Owning a monkey is like having a 2-year-old child that never gets older, can fly, and has diarrhea," Mr. Dunlap said.
Monkeys are unpredictable and can attack without warning, he said.

Mr. Deeter said he did research on Leroy's care and feeding and monkey-proofed the house, changing the doorknobs after the monkey learned to open cabinets and unlock doors.

Life with Leroy was a challenge some days, but an entertaining one. The monkey enjoyed answering the telephone, but he didn't have much to say to callers, Mr. Deeter said.

"We trained him to the best of our ability," he said. "Leroy got attention all the time."

For more than two months, the city and Leroy's owners have been in a verbal tug-of-war over the monkey. The one issue that both sides can agree on is that Leroy is sad and is struggling to adjust to his new surroundings.

Although he has a spacious cage with room to swing and climb, Leroy spends much of his time in a corner with a towel draped over his head.

"We've tried to interact with him, but he's untrusting," Mr. Dunlap said. "We've given him toys, but he doesn't know what to do with them."

Mr. Deeter said Leroy just wants to go home.

"I can't imagine what he's thinking ­ we've never left him before," he said. "I wonder if he thinks we abandoned him."

The house seems empty without Leroy, Mr. Deeter said. He and Mr. Williams have taken down their photos of Leroy and put away his toys and food bowls.

"It's sad even to look at pictures," Mr. Deeter said. "We don't even know what to do at this point."

He and Mr. Williams said city officials have been less than honest with them throughout this ordeal. Animal control employees originally told them that Leroy would be released if they could show that he was being transferred to a location that allowed monkeys, Mr. Deeter said.

Mr. Williams said he made plans to move to Louisiana, where his parents live. He obtained a letter from a wildlife game warden there, stating that monkeys were permitted in the state.

Mr. Deeter said they have tried to comply with the city's requests. But animal control employees have been unwilling to take many of their phone calls and have provided little information about Leroy's status.

"I just get shuffled around from one voice mail to another," he said. "The city tells you one thing and then does something entirely different."

Steve Clark, field supervisor for animal control, said the department is conducting an ongoing investigation. The city's findings suggest that Leroy's health has been jeopardized by his owners, he said.

"He's been horribly imprinted ­ he doesn't know he's a monkey," Mr. Clark said. "My goal is to get this monkey into a humane, caring environment."

Mr. Dunlap said Leroy suffered from nutritional deficiencies and internal parasites when he arrived in Plano. Leroy doesn't know how to interact with other monkeys, he said.

"He couldn't hold his own in a troop," he said. "He's ruined."

Leroy's owners said they think his health is deteriorating because he is depressed.

"I'm afraid he is going to get sick just from being alone," Mr. Williams said. "He is not used to that at all." Mr. Deeter said they took great care to feed Leroy properly and to monitor his health.

At the Living Materials Center, Leroy gobbles up bowls of apples, grapes, carrots, broccoli and "monkey chow." He pays little attention to his caretakers, but Mr. Dunlap can coax him to the side of his cage with a few bits of cereal.

If the city wins custody of Leroy, Mr. Dunlap said he would help officials find the monkey a home in a primate sanctuary.
Mr. Clark said he plans to ask the owners to sign over their rights to Leroy. If they refuse, the city will seek custody in court, he said.

"We dislike having to be the big, bad wolf, but our ultimate goal is the health and safety of the animal," Mr. Clark said. "If I've got to make somebody mad, I'll do that."

Mr. Deeter said they are prepared to fight for Leroy.

"We've changed our lives for this monkey," he said. "We just want him back."

Kansas City Star
February 12, 2003, Wednesday METROPOLITAN EDITION

Settlement ends monkey bite case
By BILL GRAHAM; The Kansas City Star

A Platte County boy has received a $148,000 settlement because he was bitten by a monkey and had to take rabies shots after owners would not surrender it for testing.

The case also changed Missouri law regarding animal bites.

Ethan Sickman was 7 years old when he was bitten by a rhesus monkey on July 18, 2000. The monkey was owned by Steve and Shelly Bowen, the Sickman family's next-door neighbors in unincorporated Platte County, west of Parkville.

Ethan's parents, Larry and Lori Sickman, sought medical treatment for their son and were told that he would have to receive rabies shots unless the monkey was tested and proven negative.

Rabies testing requires the animal's death. The Bowens refused to surrender the monkey for tests, according to Sickmans and Platte County officials.

"We've put the matter behind us," Shelly Bowen said Tuesday, adding that the family would have no further comment, on the advice of their attorney.

When Ethan was bitten, the county's health codes covered only bites by dogs, cats and ferrets. State law also did not address bites by animals such as monkeys.

Because of that, authorities could not seize the animal for testing.

Larry Sickman said the shots were terribly painful for his son.

"It's unfortunate there had to be a settlement to go after," Sickman said. "If they had turned over the animal for testing, there
probably would have been no lawsuit and no expenses."

The case prompted Sidney Johnson of Buchanan County and Meg Harding of Platte County, a former state senator and state representative, respectively, to get legislation approved in 2001regarding exotic pets.

State officials now can authorize local law jurisdictions to impound and test any animal that has bitten humans, said Howard Pue, public health veterinarian for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Some local governments also require testing. But if they don't, the state will.

The Sickman family made several trips to Jefferson City to testify about the issue before the legislation passed.

"It didn't do us any good," Larry Sickman said. "But anybody facing this in the future, it will help them."

Ethan, now 10, is doing well, Larry Sickman said. Ethan also has been tested for a simian virus transmittable to humans. There always will be some uncertainty about whether the virus will emerge later, his father said.

In a lawsuit filed in Platte County Circuit Court, the Sickmans said Ethan had suffered because of the bite and the treatments, and that they had incurred medical expenses. They alleged that they had been harassed by the Bowens after the dispute arose.

Also, they allege that the monkey that bit Ethan died, and that the Bowens obtained a second monkey and allowed it to be unrestrained in the yard.

The Sickmans were seeking damages greater than $25,000 on three counts and punitive damages of $2 million.

The settlement was approved Jan. 27 by Circuit Judge Lee Hull, according to court documents.

http://www.plattecountylandmark.com/Article438.htm
Boy bitten by neighbor's monkey given $150,000
February 12, 2003
by Ivan Foley
Landmark editor

A Platte County boy who was bitten on the arm by a neighbor's pet monkey has been awarded a settlement of $150,000, and the boy's parents will receive an additional $25,000.

The settlement in the lawsuit of Ethan Sickman, a minor, and his parents, Larry and Lori Sickman, vs. Steve Bowen and Shelly Bowen, was approved last week in Platte County Circuit Court by Judge Owens Lee Hull.

Both families reside on NW 76th St., Kansas City in Platte County.

Sickmans maintained that the Bowens's pet Rhesus monkey had bitten Ethan Sickman on July 18, 2000 while Ethan was riding his bike on his own property. The family said the monkey had accompanied the Bowens' child into the Sickman's yard on that day. The monkey jumped from a tree in the yard onto a fence, then onto the boy and bit him on the shoulder, said John Cady, a Platte City attorney with the firm of Cady and Campbell, who represented the Sickman family in the lawsuit.

Ethan was eight-years-old at the time of the bite. Court papers alleged that after the bite took place, the Bowens were informed Ethan would have to be given rabies shots unless they surrendered the monkey for a test for rabies.

The only way to examine a monkey for rabies, Cady said, is for the monkey to be euthanized and tests to be run on its brain. Knowing this, the neighbors refused to turn over the monkey for testing and Ethan was forced to undergo the rabies shots.

Court papers say that the rabies vaccinations that Ethan was required to obtain caused him pain and suffering, and that he may require additional medical treatment in the future. It was alleged Ethan suffered emotional and mental distress, pain and suffering.

Ethan also was tested for the Herpes B virus, Cady said. So far tests have shown he does not have the disease, which can be fatal if not detected and treated early, he said.

The lawsuit claimed the Rhesus monkey had a vicious and/or dangerous propensity to injure persons, and the defendants knew or should have known-by using ordinary care-of the monkey's propensity to injure persons.

Court papers indicate after the biting incident, bad feelings allegedly developed from the Bowen family toward the Sickmans. After the death of the monkey that bit Ethan, the Bowens obtained a second Rhesus monkey and the Sickmans claimed it was not any better restrained than the previous animal.

Sickmans said they were subjected to loud, disparaging and obscene remarks being made by the Bowens in voices loud enough to be heard at the Sickman residence. They also claimed the Bowens drove ATV vehicles up and down the property line between the two homes, creating loud noise and dust which was disturbing to the Sickmans and their guests.

Court papers indicate the Sickmans also claimed that defendant Steve Bowen intentionally appeared naked on his deck, which faces the Sickman residence. They alleged Bowen intentionally urinated off the deck in the direction of the Sickman residence while Lori Sickman was outside in her yard adjacent to the deck.

Cady said the actions of the defendants were "willful, wanton and malicious and showed complete indifference to or conscience disregard for the safety of others and such conduct was outrageous."

Details of the settlement approved by the court call for Ethan to get $10,000 per year for four years beginning when he turns age 18. He'll get another $20,000 when he turns age 25 and then $90,000 when he turns age 30.

Ethan's parents get an additional $25,000 in nuisance fees. In addition, attorney's fees the Sickmans incurred in the amount of about $59,900 must be covered by the defendants.

The financial obligations will be the responsibility of Steve and Shelly Bowen and/or their insurance company.

Rhesus monkeys for a time were a "fad kind of a pet," Cady said. He said many primate experts are of the opinion the monkeys belong in a zoo with well trained and experienced handlers.

Lifespan of a Rhesus monkey being kept in captivity is about 30 years, according to web sites dealing with the species. In the wild, the monkeys live only about four years.

They feed on seeds, roots, buds, fruit, invertebrates, bark and cereals. They can be 12-14 inches tall and weigh up to 14 pounds.

Rhesus monkeys were the first primates to be rocketed into space.

After his son was bitten by he unrestrained monkey, Larry Sickman campaigned for changes in Missouri law that would put restrictions on the owners of such pets. With the help of then-State Sen. Sidney Johnson, legislation was passed that now requires the monkeys to be registered with animal control. The law also makes owners fully responsible for any testing and any medical bills that may arise.

Larry Sickman said he doesn't like the idea of suing someone, but that his family was put in that position.

"We had no choice. My son was wronged and we had to make it right. Since the law would not stand up for us, we had to make a stand," he said.

The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
January 15, 2003, Wednesday METRO EDITION
Eby, the escaped pet monkey, caught

RACELAND - A pet capuchin monkey that escaped from its cage Friday and was running loose all weekend was captured safely Monday and taken to a Florida primate center.

Eby, found in the vicinity of the Butch Hill boat launch, was taken into custody by officials with the Jungle Friends Primate Center of Gainesville, Fla., Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said.

Before he escaped, Eby was living in a cage at the home of Angela Walker on Church Street.

Eby, only 2 feet tall and missing two front teeth, reportedly was spotted by many Lafourche Parish residents during the weekend. Eby did not injure anyone, and his captors did not injure the monkey.

Capuchin monkeys, gray and known as "organ-grinder" monkeys, normally live in South and Central America. In the wild, capuchins live on a diet of spiders, snails, lizards, small birds, roots and fruits.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
September 25, 2002, Wednesday, BC cycle
Despite heart surgery, exotic animal owner searches for monkey; BY: By J. WES YODER, The Anniston Star

Friday, Robin Kirk returned home from the hospital after a two-heart attack, two-operation, two-week stay.

A day later, in the hour after midnight, Kirk was wandering through the woods near Alexandria with a spotlight, searching through a rainstorm for his 6-year-old black-cap monkey, Skipper.

When you own 110 exotic animals, and you know them by name and they know your voice, losing your favorite pet, the one you love more than all the rest, is a pain that you cannot take to the emergency room. "Like getting shot between the eyes," said Kirk, an owner and caretaker of unusual animals, who continued to look for Skipper on Wednesday.

Kirk had been talking daily to the monkey from the hospital on a speakerphone until doctors moved him to intensive care. He believes the monkey fled its home because of separation anxiety.

"I figure he went looking for me," said Kirk, a hollow look in his eyes.

He has already buried one monkey, Buster Kirk, a 2-year-old who accidentally hanged himself.

Buster's headstone reads, "The most loved and missed monkey in the world."

Most of Kirk's animals - black buck antelope, Tibetan yaks, zonnies (a crossbreed of a male zebra and a miniature female horse), wallabies, reindeer, and Hawaiian shorthaired black sheep, to name a few - live outside in carefully kept pens with storm shelters. But Skipper, three dogs, a baby wallaby, a baboon and two African Gray Congo parrots who can sing "Jesus Loves Me" and four Hank Williams songs, form the inner circle of Kirk's animal kingdom. They live in his home and eat from his hand.

"Like family," he said. "I've never had any children."

"Last week, doctors didn't think they'd bring me back, said Kirk, a 59-year-old, retired advertising executive who has had eight heart attacks. "But I knew they would, because God put me here to take care of these critters."

While they worked on his heart, they gave him an order that nearly broke it - no more talking on the phone. Kirk feared Skipper, whom he had bottle-fed from birth, would not be able to cope with the separation.

Three days later, on Thursday, Skipper hopped past an assistant caretaker while she was feeding him, and scurried out of sight. Kirk's homecoming the next day felt more like a funeral than a celebration.

For days now he has been looking for Skipper, driving slowly the broken roads around Alexandria in his Ford diesel dually. Far-off dogs and cats catch his eye, but they are treasures not lost, treasures not his.

Kirk fears time is getting short. West Alexandria is no place for a monkey with special dietary needs.

"Maybe some berries, maybe some bugs, I don't know if he could crack some nuts," Kirk reasons, saying monkey biscuits, shipped from Missouri, are a staple of Skipper's diet. "I'm afraid we only got about a day or so."

Saturday night, someone spotted Skipper in a tree. By the time Kirk got there, the monkey had fled.

"He's a very sweet monkey, but no one needs to try to catch him. They need to call me," he said.

When Kirk walks into a pen, stopping occasionally to rest his weary body, the animals circle around him. He calls them by name. He knows their birthdays. The two-hump camel, Oscar, greets him with a kiss.

But taking care of a monkey is a much greater commitment, Kirk said, adding it's a commitment some people don't understand.

"Owning a monkey is like having a 2-year-old on speed that will live to be 80," he said. "You want to go to Panama City for the weekend? You got to find a sitter. It's not easy to find a sitter for a monkey."

Kirk regularly takes some of his animals to church nativity scenes. At a nursing home in Jackson County, where he has taken Skipper, Oscar and some miniature horses for the last several years, some of the women have started going to the beauty parlor the morning before the animals visit.

One woman in the nursing home had not spoken for four years, Kirk said. "She had crawled into her shell. But when she saw Skipper run in, she started talking and has talked ever since."

Life without Skipper is a possibility that Kirk is not ready to face. "Coming home has been rough. Real rough," he said.

He will keep driving the bumpy, twisting roads, day and night, he said, as long as he can hope.

"Hope is all I got."

For now, he only stops briefly, to rest his weak and tired heart.

Each day, though, he drives a little farther.

"By now, he could be past Ohatchee."

Chimp in zoo tries to drag away Chinese boy
BEIJING, Sept 10 2002

A chimpanzee at a zoo in eastern China tried to drag a four-year-old boy into his enclosure, prompting a 10-minute wrestle with passers-by who sought to free the child, state media reported Monday.

The boy's ordeal began when he tried to hand the chimp a piece of bread at Hangzhou Zoo in Zhejiang Province, the Xinhua news agency said.

The ape sank its teeth into the child's right arm and tried to drag him away, the agency said, quoting local media reports.

A neighbour, who had taken the child for the weekend trip to the zoo, along with other people nearby, had to pull the boy back, but it took a 10-minute "fight" to free him.

The child suffered injuries to his arm which could affect the function of his wrist and thumb, Xinhua said.

While the boy, named as Cheng Cheng, was in shock -- "The chimp is terrible and I dare not to visit it again" he reportedly said after an operation on his arm -- zoo officials said the public should not feed the animals.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m090702b.htm
Saturday, September 7, 2002

Wash. Twp. residents face fines over monkey

By TIM ZATZARINY JR.
Courier-Post Staff
WASHINGTON TWP.

Martino Cartier never thought Moochie the monkey would come back to haunt him.

Two years ago, Cartier, the owner of a local beauty salon, bought the capuchin monkey from a licensed breeder in Pennsylvania for $5,000.

When Cartier realized two months later he wouldn't be able to get a permit in New Jersey to keep Moochie, he resold the monkey to a fellow township resident.

This week, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife charged Cartier with possessing the monkey without a permit and illegally selling it.

Unlicensed capuchin monkeys are banned in New Jersey because the state considers them a potentially dangerous species. Their sale also is illegal in the state.

The resident who bought Moochie, Diane Caltabiano, also was cited this week for illegally possessing the monkey.

Acting on an anonymous tip, state and federal authorities seized Moochie from Caltabiano's Raymond Drive home on Aug. 25. That day, according to Cartier, authorities also asked to search his home and accused him of being a dealer of the exotic monkeys, which he denies.

"They're trying to treat me like a criminal," he said in an interview this week at his business, Martino's Salon XI. "I don't understand it. I owned the monkey for two months."

Cartier, 27, contends he didn't know it was illegal for him to sell the monkey in New Jersey.

He bought Moochie, then just a few weeks old, in February 2000 as a pet for his toddler son. The child played with the monkey without incident, Cartier said.

Moochie also visited Cartier's shop on Egg Harbor Road, where he entertained customers.

"I just want people to know I didn't bring a smuggled, Old World monkey into my business," Cartier said.

Shortly after he bought Moochie, Cartier applied for an exhibitor's permit, which would have allowed him to keep the monkey provided he put it on public display.

His request was denied and he decided to sell Moochie, even though the monkey had become like a member of the family, he said.

Cartier said he tried to return Moochie to the breeders, but they were willing to give him only half of his original purchase price.

He then sold the monkey to Caltabiano.

Cartier and Caltabiano face fines ranging from $250 to $5, 000 on each charge.

Cartier is scheduled to appear in Washington Township Municipal Court on Sept. 25.

Caltabiano did not return calls seeking comment.

Capuchin monkeys, which are native to South America, are considered potentially dangerous because they have sharp canine teeth that can cause injuries, said Al Ivany, a spokesman for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Primates are also known to carry diseases, such as the deadly Ebola virus, that can be passed to humans.

"It's incumbent on people who are getting an exotic pet to see if it's legal to have it in New Jersey," Ivany said.

Cartier and Caltabiano aren't the first Gloucester County residents to get mixed up in some recent monkey business.

In February, the state seized another capuchin monkey, Curious George, from the Harrison home of Debra Ann Stipp.

After Stipp sued the state to get Curious George back, he was returned in June on the condition that she apply for an exhibitor's license and agree to put him on public display several times a year.

Ivany said that as of Friday, Caltabiano had not applied for a similar permit.

Moochie is being held at a licensed facility in New Jersey, according to Ivany.

He said the seizure of illegal capuchin monkeys in New Jersey is rare and it's merely a coincidence that two of the primates were taken from Gloucester County this year.

Cartier said he'll likely plead not guilty to the charges against him.

"I never would have thought I might be fined $10,000 for buying a monkey," he said. "It's crazy."

Reach Tim Zatzariny Jr. at (856) 845-4617 or tzatzariny@courierpostonline.com

http://phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2002-08-29/news2.html/1/index.html

29 August 2002

Chimp on His Shoulder
An exotic-animal broker says Arizona's 'monkey rules' are forcing him out
By Susy Buchanan

A glance at the online inventory of Peoria-based Wild Animal World reads like a passenger manifest for Noah's Ark.

Claiming to be the largest dealer in exotic animals in the United States, Wild Animal World can deliver almost any species imaginable to your doorstep, whether it be a Watusi ($2,500) a 3-month-old female giraffe ($45,000), a hand-raised buffalo ($1,000), a pair of breeding jaguars ($7,000), a female red kangaroo ($4,000), a 9-week-old Bengal tiger cub ($18,000) or an albino skunk ($200).

Wild Animal World's biggest business is in monkeys, though, from white-throated capuchins to snow macaques, marmosets and spider monkeys, ranging in price from $1,100 to $9,000 each.

But the regulations imposed by the State of Arizona on Wild Animal World two years ago have founder Randall Davies and his fiancee, Memory Price, packing up their business this week and relocating to Nevada, where restrictions on the primate trade, they say, aren't such a monkey on their backs.

"Two years ago, this lady at the State Vet's office ruined it for everyone," Davies complains.

The lady is Dr. Mira Leslie, an authority on exotics and primates and the public health veterinarian for the State of Arizona. In 1999, Leslie, alarmed at an increase in bites and other incidents involving pet monkeys, compiled enough statistics to convince the state Game and Fish Department to tighten the regulations on the monkey trade in Arizona.

The revised rule requires that monkeys be half-grown before they're bought or sold, and that they be fully tested for species-hopping diseases, particularly herpes B -- a virus that is fatal to humans and carried by 80 to 90 percent of macaques in the wild.

Disease, Davies says, has never been a problem, but having to sell half-grown monkeys is. To make matters worse, he adds, Game and Fish's so-called "Monkey Bite" rule prohibits monkeys from leaving their owners' property and venturing out into public.

"Before, we would take them river rafting, to drive-in movies, to the lake and go fishing, water-skiing, to the bank, every public place that wasn't a food establishment," Davies recalls. "Like Hooters, yeah, Hooters. We used to sit out on the patio there and have a lot of fun. . . We never had any problems."

But other people did. In a study conducted in 1997 by the Centers for Disease Control with the help of Dr. Leslie, seven cases of monkey bites or scratches were examined, and three of them revealed the presence of herpes B. Moreover, four of those seven incidents occurred in Arizona, including one involving an infected, 7-week-old, diaper-wearing cynomolgus who shared chewing gum with its owners and bit an adult at a bar. Another Arizona case involved a macaque, one of eight at an unlicensed day-care center, who bit a child severely. Still another referred to a 2-year-old cynomolgus who climbed over a fence to bite a neighbor child's toe and buttocks.

Jim Devos, chief of research at Game and Fish, explains the reasons behind the December 1999 amendment: "When we were originally discussing adopting the Monkey Bite' rule, we were getting 40 reports of bites a year. Since it went into effect, we are seeing about one a month."

Davies still maintains that monkeys make fine pets. But there are no simians swinging from the trees or tigers prowling his yard in the quiet neighborhood just off Peoria Avenue. Davies doesn't keep the animals he advertises for sale on hand anymore. He is instead a go-between, a broker between individuals and institutions looking to buy or sell exotic breeds.

Although Davies transferred the business to his fiancee in January, he still talks like he's got both hands on the wheel. "I've been in the business for 20 years," he says. "First I had monkeys as pets, then I bought a monkey business that was for sale. It started in the basement with lab cages and grew to a ranch with real nice cages."

His career as a monkey trader, however, has not been without controversy.

Davies once owned Monkeys Unlimited, a Cincinnati-based primate clearinghouse that ran ads in USA Today in the late '80s, advertising monkeys for sale. A 1999 book on exotic-animal trafficking, Animal Underworld, describes Davies' business as "a notorious primate mail order operation run out of a filthy Cincinnati warehouse." Author Alan Green also claims that Davies "dumped huge quantities of baby monkeys into the pet trade," before shutting down in Ohio in 1991 and moving to Phoenix.

"We were only in that shop for three months," Davies responds, "then we moved to a beautiful ranch. And what does he mean by dumping monkeys'? People purchased them."

Regardless, Davies claims that it was overregulation, and not bad press, that ruined his Peoria enterprise. Davies estimates he sells between two and seven monkeys a month, which he says is considerably lower than his pre-"Monkey Bite" volume.

"Arizona used to be a great place to sell monkeys, and it still would be, except I can only sell half-grown monkeys, so we don't even bother with marketing or selling here anymore."

His client base, he says, includes politicians, private citizens and celebrities. "I just sold a monkey to Hugh Hefner last week, a capuchin," he claims. Interest in exotic pets has been high in recent years, and if it weren't for Arizona's draconian policies, he says, he'd still have tigers and baboons as pets. But Davies doesn't have any exotics at all anymore, not even Alfy, the overalls-clad baboon clinging to Randy on the back of an ATV in pictures on his Web site. "I got rid of Alfy last year," he says. "We're trying to get everything ready to move."

Davies and Price have looked at several areas in Nevada and will drive out next week, hoping for 100 acres or so next to a river. There, they'll start up again, unfettered by regulations.

"There are thousands of people like me across the country who want to have exotic animals," Davies says. "The animals need us. Their countries are being destroyed. Fires destroy the rain forest; in some countries, poachers are still poaching off of reserve areas. And farmlands, the farmers kill the monkeys because they eat their vegetables, and they kill the cats because they eat their livestock.

In our country, we keep them and breed them and care for them. If it weren't for this country, we wouldn't have some of these animals today."

http://www.news-star.com/stories/082202/New_58.shtml
Shawnee Oklahoma, News Star
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Woman has to give up exotic pets
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Patricia Shaver needs to find a home for about 10 exotic monkeys and lemurs.
A county zoning board recently ruled that Shaver can't keep more than six exotic animals in her home east of Sand Springs after a neighbor complained that the animals have escaped from their cages and are dangerous.
Although Shaver will give up her monkeys and lemurs, she's calling the decision a victory.
Shaver feared that the board would not permit her to keep her animals at all.
"We are very grateful," she said.
Shaver has 22 animals. About half are considered exotic and can not be kept on her property. She will be allowed to keep all of her non-exotic animals.
Shaver, who is blind, has been rescuing exotic animals, including some that had been injured or are disabled.
With her partner, Bill Allison, Shaver has seven breeds of small monkeys, three lemurs, four South American raccoons, three dogs, a duck, a miniature horse, baby doll sheep, an African parrot and a blind wallaby.
The house is equipped with outdoor monkey cages and tunnels that allow the animals to go in the house.
The couple and their monkeys are a familiar sight at local elementary schools.
Two of their monkeys appeared in a Tulsa Performing Arts Center production of "Inherit the Wind."
But complaints from a neighbor are ending the animal haven at Shaver's home.
"I don't think it's right," said neighbor Katherine Lamb.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4999745&BRD=1569&PAG=461&dept_id=180945&rfi=6

Mauling monkey to be deported to Oklahoma
By: Rachelann Ferris, Courier staff
August 09, 2002

A 7-year-old Macaque monkey that attacked three Montgomery County residents in June will be shipped back to the Oklahoma breeder where he was born, a judge ruled Thursday morning.

According to Montgomery County Animal Control Field Supervisor John Geiser, the monkey attacked three people, including owner Judy Williams of Magnolia, during an incident June 23.

The Macaque monkey, named Presley, attacked a 9-year-old neighborhood boy in front of the Williams' home in the 17200 block of Jui Lane in Magnolia. At some point, Presley also bit Williams and a Magnolia firefighter who had been called to the scene to help contain the primate.

"The reports we have so far are that it was unprovoked," said Geiser, who said the monkey was not registered with Montgomery County Animal Control, which is required by law. The boy and Williams were bitten by the monkey, while the firefighter was scratched severely enough to break the skin. All three were taken to a local hospital, where they were treated for the injuries.

After the monkey's 30-day quarantine period was completed, Williams appeared before 221st state District Judge Suzanne Stovall Thursday to discuss the fate of the creature.

Williams agreed to relinquish ownership of the monkey back to the Oklahoma breeder from which she had purchased Presley. Presley will be placed in the company's education program.

Macaque monkeys, also called Java monkeys, are native to southeast Asia and weigh an average of 30-40 pounds, with males generally weighing more than females.

Since Oct. 10, 1975, the importation of nonhuman primates has been prohibited by Public Health Service quarantine regulations, except for scientific, educational or exhibition purposes by importers registered with the Centers for Disease Control and are not admissible as pets in the United States because such animals are common carriers of disease, including hepatitis, herpes, and AIDS.

Presley turned out to be disease-free monkey during the quarantine period, officials said.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
August 8, 2002 Thursday

Zoo volunteer to receive rabies shots

A volunteer at the BEARCAT Hollow animal park must receive a series of rabies shots after being bitten by a monkey.

Jade Landgrebe, 21, told authorities that she was bitten on the finger Sunday when she entered the monkey's cage.

Landgrebe, who has volunteered at the animal park for three years, said she had given the monkey named JoJo a hug and was putting it back in the cage when it grabbed her hair, according to Mower County Sheriff Barry Simonson.

When she tried to free herself, the monkey bit her on the little finger of her left hand. The one-inch wound required five stitches, and Landgrebe was held for observation at Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester. She was reported in fair condition Tuesday.

According to a sheriff's report, Landgrebe said she was willing to take the rabies shots instead of killing the monkey so it could be tested.

Earlier this summer, security improvements were completed at BEARCAT Hollow, where a tiger attacked a girl last summer and a young bear escaped in December. The 25-acre zoo's name is an acronym that stands for Beautiful Endangered And Rare Conservation And Therapy. It has about 300 animals.

Monkey bites investigated
By Chery Sabol, The Daily Inter Lake
Tue 6 Aug 2002

A pet monkey that has bitten several people in the valley has raised health concerns.

"We know of three for sure, maybe four" victims, said nurse Dan Dickman of the city-county health department.

The monkey is a 5-pound macaque whose owner has brought it into public places, Dickman said.

The owner hasn't been charged with any violations and isn't named. But his pet quickly earned a reputation.

"The thing is very territorial. It ended up biting people," Dickman said.

One incident was at a restaurant at the Whitefish mall. Another, possibly involving two people, was at The Apple Barrel Fruit Stand Inc. on U.S. 2 near the airport. Another case was reported at a residence.

The bites were deep enough to break the skin on victims, raising concerns about disease transmission, Dickman said.

"We're worried about it," he said.

Concerns include tetanus, herpes B, tuberculosis, rabies and hepatitis B, Dickman said.

The monkey has been sent to Great Falls to be quarantined, he said. Test samples have gone to Loma Linda, Calif., for analysis, he said.

Macaques legally cannot be shipped into the country "because they are a carrier of diseases that can be passed on to humans," Dickman said. The animals are used in laboratory tests.

This monkey is the descendant of several generations of breeding in this country, Dickman said.

Two of the people who were bitten went in for immediate medical treatment, he said. All are awaiting test results on the monkey.

The greatest concern is transmission of herpes B.

"They call it the monkey virus," Dickman said.

Though rare, the virus kills 70 percent of people who contract it, he said. "Herpes B is scary," he said.

Animal warden Richard Stockdale was unavailable Monday for comment. County Attorney Tom Esch said there are ordinances against having a vicious dog, but none against owning a savage simian.

"I haven't ruled out endangerment" charges, Esch said Monday.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at
csabol@dailyinterlake.com

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
August 6, 2002, Tuesday, BC cycle

A pet monkey that has bitten several people in the Flathead Valley has raised both health and legal concerns.

"We know of three for sure, maybe four" victims, said Dan Dickman, a City-County Health Department nurse.

The monkey is a 5-pound macaque whose owner has brought it into public places, Dickman said. The owner hasn't been charged with any violations and isn't named. But his pet quickly earned a reputation.

"The thing is very territorial," Dickman said.

One incident was at a restaurant at the Whitefish mall. Another, possibly involving two people, was at a fruit stand on U.S. 2 near the airport.

The bites were deep enough to break the skin on victims, raising concerns about disease transmission, Dickman said. "We're worried about it," he said.

Concerns include tetanus, herpes B, tuberculosis, rabies and hepatitis B, Dickman said.

The monkey has been sent to Great Falls to be quarantined, he said. Test samples have gone to Loma Linda, Calif., for analysis, he said.

Flathead County Attorney Tom Esch said there are ordinances against having a vicious dog, but none against owning a vicious monkey.

"I haven't ruled out endangerment" charges, Esch said Monday.

The Gleaner
July 18, 2002

CAPUCHIN MONKEY AT LARGE

A MONKEY in its late 20s escaped from the Hope Zoo in St. Andrew yesterday morning and is now on the run.

Officials at the Hope Zoo urged residents in and around the communities of Hope Pastures and Liguanea to be on the lookout for Sammy, the 1-1/2 feet capuchin or South American monkey which has a cowl-like cap of hair on the head. Residents are being strongly advised not to approach or attempt to capture or restrain the animal which has large canines and is capable of inflicting bites.

According to Hope Zoo representative Charlene Alexander, investigations are now under way to determine the circumstances under which Sammy escaped from his holding area at about 10:00 a.m yesterday.

He is fairly intelligent but he is very capable of inflicting bites. He is somewhat tame but he is only friendly with people he is familiar with, Miss Alexander said yesterday.

Sammy, who is dark brown and hairy, is a fruit-eating monkey whose diet is normally supplemented with hard-boiled eggs for protein. Miss Alexander said she expects the capuchins to remain in the Hope Pastures area as there are a lot of trees around.

Sammy was donated to the Hope Zoo in 1985 by the Immaculate Conception High School where it was previously being kept as a pet.

Agence France Presse
July 7, 2002 Sunday

Manic monkey scares sunbathers at Rome pool

An angry ape called Pedro terrorised swimmers at a municipal swimming pool in Rome on Sunday after demolishing his cage in order to attack neighbourhood dogs, authorities said.

The pet animal, a Japanese macaque, is 80 centimetres (32 inches) high and was calmed with a shot of anesthetic after being hunted for two hours.

His owner raised the alarm after finding the remains of the cage. A couple of days earlier Pedro had bitten him, causing a wound which needed seven stitches.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
July 4, 2002, Thursday, BC cycle
Looking for a pet? Leave the monkeys alone, caretakers of primates plead
By KIMBERLY MATAS, Arizona Daily Star

As part of her daily grooming ritual, Erin Allan goes into her back yard where Tanuki, a white-faced Capuchin monkey, massages her owner's hands and cleans under Allan's manicured nails using her own tiny black fingers.

In return, Allan strokes the 13-year-old primate's long, furry arms as Tanuki reaches through the chain-link fencing of her large cage.

Allan has six monkeys, each with a distinct personality. The Tucson resident has a one-on-one relationship with each of them, but she does not condone keeping primates as pets. Those in Allan's care are former pets, given up when owners lost interest or realized caring for the animals was more work than anticipated.

"I'm not against private ownership per se, but I am against trying to make monkeys something they are not," she said, stressing that no matter what their upbringing, at their core primates are wild animals.

A member of the Simian Society of America and past vice president and board member, Allan knows what she's talking about. She and other private caretakers from across the country put together a thick handbook outlining primate care. To better understand her fur-faced wards, Allan took college classes in primatology and volunteered at the ChimpanZoo: Research, Education and Enrichment Program, sponsored by the Jane Goodall Institute.

Many people are under the mistaken impression that they can tame a monkey if they get it early enough, Allan said. Subsequently breeders pull babies as young as 2 weeks old from their mothers' arms. That early disengagement from their mothers, combined with social isolation from other primates, causes maturational arrest and maladaptive behaviors, Allan said.

One of the monkeys in Allan's care, Amelia, a hybrid blackcap Capuchin, is so hyperactive she must live alone until Allan can find another primate with whom the 13-year-old monkey can get along.

Because she was raised by humans, not her own mother, Amelia spends much of her time rocking back and forth, her slender arms wrapped around a large wadded-up blanket, imitating the way she would have clung to her mother, Allan said.

"They adapt by developing behaviors to substitute for what's lacking in their environment," she said. Some monkeys, who never had the early stimulation of other primates, can even become thumb-suckers, self-biters and self-mutilators.

In the primate world, mothers care for their young around the clock for months, providing grooming and constant motion and allowing them to cling to them and suckle whenever they want. Plus, primate mothers provide life lessons to their young. Primates learn by watching the behavior of other monkeys. Even humans with the best intentions cannot be substitutes for the kind of attention another monkey can provide, Allan said.

Allan tries "to provide as much of a natural setting as possible, but it's difficult."

Within their cages her monkeys have houses to hide in, shelves to climb, hanging walkways to run across, blankets and a few children's toy, even though she said adult primates are not very interested in toys.

Though Amelia lives alone for the moment, three other Capuchins live together nearby in one large cage attached to a smaller enclosure by a series of overhead, interconnected caged-in walkways. Two others share another spacious cage.

Allan never enters the cages. Though humans raised them, the monkeys would attack if Allan invaded their territory.

Instead, she said, "I love them up through the bars."

Allan said owners often sterilize their primate pets in the mistaken belief this will tame them, and pull out their teeth to prevent biting. She is opposed to humans using primates "as surrogate children."

"I don't like to see the dignity removed by putting them in clothes and diapers," she said.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/62702_local_monkey.html
Young boy suffers attack from pet monkey

Nine-year-old Adam Soileau describes how a neighbor's pet monkey attacked his arms.
By Jessica Willey
ABC 13 Eyewitness News

(6/27/02) - A nine-year-old Montgomery county boy is recovering after being attacked by a monkey. It happened while he was playing near his home. Now that monkey is under quarantine.

Presley, a macaque monkey, attacked nine-year-old Adam Soileau. Its owner and even a firefighter responded to the scene Sunday. Meanwhile, the boy, who sustained the worst injuries, is back home after the attack. One is so bad, he can't even walk.

Adam had to be carried by his father when he returned home from the hospital.

"I have a whole bunch of stitches (along my thumb)," said Adam. "And he cut a whole bunch of skin (from my leg.)"

On Sunday, Adam was playing in his Montgomery county neighborhood in front of the house where the monkey lives. All of a sudden, he says it came from the backyard and attacked him.

"He started jumping. After he got this (arm), he seen all the blood," Adam recalled. "Then he jumped to this (arm) and started yanking, and going back and forth to a leg and both my arms, like, taking turns on all of them."

So agitated, the monkey dragged Adam into the ditch. Finally his grandmother came to the rescue, beating the primate off him with her purse.

"She heard me yelling help," Adam said.

The monkey named Presley is a macaque, a species known to be unpredictable and aggressive. We can't get close to the one in question because it now sits quarantined for 30 days at Montgomery County Animal Control. Twice a day, a supervisor there cleans its cage and feeds it while it's tested for diseases.

"We don't expect there to be a problem," said Kelli Copeland, the director of Montgomery Co. Animal Control. "The animal is born and raised in captivity and has not been around any other monkeys. "

Copeland says the owner didn't have a permit to keep the monkey in the county nor did she have it contained legally. She'll be cited. But she says if the monkey is healthy and its owner abides by county ordinances, it could go back home.
Adam Solieau has multiple reasons why he thinks that's a bad idea.

"I think they ought to put it down," Adam told Eyewitness News. "Because any day if someone goes around where he lives, he's going to attack them."

The owner, Judy Williams, will be cited for not having the monkey registered and for letting it run at large. We tried to contact her but were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, a vet with the Houston zoo has already drawn blood from the monkey. They fear it may have any number of diseases including herpes. Those results haven't come back yet. Adam Soileau is taking antibiotics just in case.

The Houston Chronicle
June 27, 2002, Thursday 3 STAR EDITION

Monkey being tested for virus after attacks on 3 people

BY: HARVEY RICE

MAGNOLIA - Montgomery County officials Wednesday were awaiting test results that would determine whether a monkey that bit and scratched three people has a lethal strain of herpes.

The 15- to 20-pound male macaque attacked 9-year-old Adam Soileau in front of his grandmother's home in Magnolia, causing severe injuries to the boy's legs, arms and hands, said Tony Clingaman, an emergency medical technician with Magnolia Volunteer Fire Department. "He definitely could have killed that child," said Clingaman, who found the boy in shock and bleeding profusely when he arrived at about 11 a.m. Sunday.

The macaque retreated to the back porch, where it eventually was retrieved by its owner, Judy Williams, 49, who returned it to her back yard about three houses from where the attack took place.

The 7-year-old macaque also bit Williams and scratched Clingaman as they put it in its cage.

Adam and Clingaman, informed that macaques carry a strain of herpes virus that is fatal to humans, were put on a regimen of antibiotics and antiviral medicines by their doctors.

The macaque will remain under rabies quarantine for 30 days.

http://stacks.msnbc.com/local/kprc/A1238323.asp
Pet Monkey Quarantined After Biting 3 People

MAGNOLIA, Texas, 5:38 p.m. CDT June 25, 2002 - An unregistered exotic monkey bit and scratched three people, including a boy, and was placed under quarantine, according to animal control officials Tuesday.

Presley the monkey joined 13 other quarantined animals at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, officials said.

Presley, described as smaller than the average male macaques, escaped from its cage on McIntosh Street in southwest Montgomery County and went on a biting rampage, officials said.

"It bit a little boy, then it bit its owner and scratched a fireman," said Kelli Copeland with the Montgomery County Animal Shelter.

Animal experts at the Houston Zoo, who were called in for the case, take monkey bites seriously since monkeys can carry dangerous diseases.

The macaques can spread the herpes B virus.

"It's a type of herpes that is carried by many different macaques and it can be deadly to humans so when a human is bitten by a macaques, it's important to that monkey to see if that animal had the disease and was shedding it at the time," said Joe Flanagan, a senior veterinarian at the Houston Zoo.

Test results were not back Tuesday afternoon.

Presley will be quarantined for a month, according to authorities, and cannot be returned to his old cage.

"The pen is in very bad shape. She is going to have to install another pen. I don't know if this one would meet code at all. It has to be 9-guage wire and she's got a much thinner wire than is required," Copland said.

Flanagan said the Houston Zoo does not have macaques because they are known carriers of infectious diseases.

He said that it's also why macaques and rhesus monkeys make good laboratory research pets and not domestic pets.

Presley's owner will be cited for not registering the monkey in Montgomery County, police said.

Bangkok Post
June 14, 2002

ZOO WORKERS CAPTURE MISCHIEVOUS MACAQUE, EVENTUALLY
BY: Pattanapong Hirunnard

An aggressive monkey which wreaked havoc on a small community for two days was finally captured yesterday, Dusit zoo officials said.

The seven-year-old male macaque's anti-social behaviour became a topic of discussion on Ruam Duay Chuay Kan community radio on Wednesday. The residents in tambon Klong Bang Pla Kod in Phra Samut Chedi district called the station and asked for help.

The monkey barged into their houses and stole food and any other items that grabbed his attention, and attacked anyone trying to catch him, they said.

Dusit zoo sent a 15-strong team led by Somchart Luanklinhom to catch the animal. Their first attempt, on Wednesday, failed when the monkey refused to drink milk laced with sedatives.

The animal showed up again yesterday afternoon, and after causing an electrical short circuit and getting a shock was subdued with a tranquilliser dart.

Mr Somchart said the monkey had apparently been well-trained. It used straws when drinking and knew how to unwrap food packages.

The macaque was taken to Dusit zoo for care and attention.

The short circuit caused a power blackout at a 50-room welfare apartment lasting several hours.

The Express
June 10, 2002

ANIMALS SPEND THEIR LIVES LOCKED AWAY IN GARAGES; MISERY OF PET MONKEYS

THOUSANDS of monkeys, bought as lovable pets, are being condemned to lives of misery in garden sheds and garages across Britain, animal welfare groups claimed yesterday.

Experts say at least 1,500 primates are kept in cramped conditions unable to exercise and being fed fizzy drinks and chocolate - a world away from their natural surroundings of lush, tropical rainforests.

Hundreds more are on offer for sale around the UK because of the growing trend for keeping exotic animals as pets - despite the fact that isolating monkeys causes them mental illness. Owners currently need a license to keep a monkey as a pet, but the Monkey Sanctuary Trust is urging the Government to make it illegal.

Rachel Hevesi, a director of the sanctuary, warned that even pet monkeys kept in good conditions suffer because they miss out on the complex social relationships they require.

"Lots of people buy monkeys because they see an animal with a cute face and big eyes and want to take care of it, " she said.

"But monkeys are dangerous wild animals which should not be kept as pets. People fail to understand the time and attention that a monkey requires to live a happy life.

"All monkeys are social animals that need the company of their own kind to develop natural behaviour.

"Often pet monkeys live in isolation and no amount of human love can make up for the separation from their own kind.

"Faced with this barren existence, monkeys develop stereotypical behaviour and because they are so desperate for stimulation they over-groom themselves till their arms and legs are bare of fur.

"They can also take out their frustration on the people looking after them. This normally happens when they hit puberty at about five years old and they become more aggressive.

"That's when many owners have to lock them up in garden sheds or garages because they are too dangerous to keep in the house."

The Monkey Sanctuary, near Looe in Cornwall, is currently caring for 13 woolly monkeys and two capuchins.

Peppy, the newest resident, was brought in by a family who could not cope after being given him as a pet.

They were forced to house him in their garden shed and he was being fed a diet of roast dinners and chocolate spread sandwiches.

Another capuchin called Frosty was rescued from kennels, surrounded by barking dogs. He was found with a female monkey and baby, but his two companions were so ill they died a few days after they were rescued.

Ian Redmond, who is adviser to the United Nations Great Ape Survival Project, said: "All primates are intelligent social animals.

"Keeping them in captivity seldom gives them the quality of life they deserve.

"Even when captive bred, young primates are taken from their mothers for the pet trade, which causes stress to the youngster and mother, perpetuating the cycle of cruelty."

Aug. 13, 2002, 6:50AM
Violent monkey to be extradited; disease-free and heading to Okla.

By CINDY HORSWELL
Houston Chronicle

MAGNOLIA -- Presley, a pet monkey who seriously injured a boy and also attacked two adults, is free of diseases and will be sent to a zoolike environment in Oklahoma, Montgomery County's animal control director said Monday.

Cindy Williams, owner of the 40-pound macaque since shortly after his birth in 1996, has agreed to relinquish custody and pay for his monthlong quarantine, during which he was checked for hepatitis, rabies and herpes, said animal control chief Kelly Copeland.

Williams, 49, of Magnolia, could not be reached for comment. Copeland said Presley will be returned to his breeders, Armer Exotics in Oklahoma City.

The macaque escaped on June 23 and attacked 9-year-old Adam Soileau and two others. The boy needed numerous stitches but is recovering, Copeland said.

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
April 7, 2002 Sunday All Editions

MONKEY BARRED FROM GOING HOME

WOODBURY - Still not convinced that Curious George won't get into mischief, a judge is refusing to let the little monkey go home, at least for now.

Debra Ann Stipp and her husband, Conrad, are trying to get their 11-year-old pet monkey back after state authorities confiscated the unlicensed animal. New Jersey law considers capuchin monkeys to be a "potentially dangerous species" requiring a special owner's or exhibitor's permit.

Judge Martin A. Herman did not rule on the family's contention that Curious George is harmless. But he did allow the Stipps to have a veterinarian visit the monkey and make sure it is healthy.

The Stipps applied for a permit last month, even though they have owned the monkey since it was a newborn.

They say Curious George, purchased from a Pennsylvania breeder for $3,500, is not dangerous. He was neutered to lessen his aggressiveness, and his four large incisor teeth were removed.

Herman scheduled another hearing for April 26. He also allowed the Stipps to have their veterinarian examine Curious George at the Popcorn Park Zoo, an animal rescue facility in Lacey Township, Ocean County.

The monkey has been held in a cage there since a state conservation officer, acting on an informant's complaint, seized the animal from the couple's house Feb. 16.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_557231.html?menu=
Escaped monkey attacks two in Japan

Two people have been bitten by a monkey that escaped from its owner's cage in Japan.

A woman who was bitten on the thigh has been told her injuries could take three weeks to heal.

The Japanese monkey was eventually caught by police in Seto.

Police are questioning its 58-year-old owner on suspicion of violating an ordinance on keeping animals because he did not have permission to keep the monkey.

It bit Harue Tamayama on the thigh then attacked Katsuzo Yamashita, who's 66. He suffered slight injuries.

The Mainichi Daily News reports investigators found a large opening in the cage through which the monkey escaped.

Story filed: 12:42 Sunday 31st March 2002

Cox News Service
March 27, 2002 Wednesday
Wayward monkey returned to Florida home

BY: DANI DAVIES

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Around the same time a friendly capuchin monkey named Jake was making himself comfortable munching snacks in a backyard treehouse, his family was searching frantically for their special pet.

Three days of monkey vacation ended Wednesday morning when Janice Ferraiolo climbed the treehouse and brought Jake home.

"He screamed when he saw me," the monkey's foster mother said. "Then he just came running."

Jake is diabetic and requires a daily insulin shot. He has lived with Ferraiolo for seven years to get him used to family life but will someday become a helper to a quadriplegic person.

A day after slipping out of a screen door of his home Sunday, the 14-year-old, 8-pound monkey showed up at Domenico Scotto's home.

"He was waving and knocking at the window to get my attention," said Scotto, who gave Jake water, bananas and peanut butter.

Jake climbed to the treehouse, where Scotto usually sits to drink capuccino and espresso.

"I went up there slowly. That's when he shook my hand," he said.

Jake quickly made himself comfortable in the treetop oasis as Scotto and his neighbor, Peggy Giglio, kept their eyes peeled for lost pet notices. She fed Jake peanut butter from a spoon and bought him fruit and stuffed animals.

They contacted Ferraiolo after reading a story about Jake. Giglio says she is thinking of becoming a foster parent, and Scotto has an unique tale to tell.

"A monkey knocking at your door," he said. "Imagine that."

The Indianapolis Star
March 20, 2002 Wednesday City Edition

Capture in garage puts end to this pet's monkey shines

BY: BY DIANE FREDERICK DIANE.FREDERICK@INDYSTAR.COM

THORNTOWN, Ind. -- Rascal, the wayward spider monkey that gave police a run for their cookies last week, is back home.

Rascal escaped from owners Mike and Susan Warmoth, who live on Ind. 47 east of Thorntown. A passer-by saw Rascal on Ind. 52 Thursday and called police.

Boone County Sheriff Dennis Brannon and two State Police troopers tried, unsuccessfully, to lure Rascal into custody with a Girl Scout cookie.

Rascal snatched the box from Brannon before fleeing into a wooded area.

At some point, Rascal took shelter in a garage on Ind. 52. On Saturday, the owner of the garage contacted Mike Warmoth, who finally caught the wayward monkey.

"It took about 45 minutes in the garage to get him settled down," Susan Warmoth said. "He was so exhausted he went to sleep in my granddaughter's car seat on the way home."

"He likes garages, evidently," said neighbor Alma Smith, who has encountered Rascal on the run previously.

Rascal wound up in Smith's garage last year after leading her husband, Jerry, and a helper from Smith's Trash Service on a wild chase.

Alma Smith said that episode began while she and her sister were en route to a garage sale. Alma saw Rascal sitting on a post, out of reach of a pursuing dog.

"I said, 'There's a monkey on that post,' " Alma Smith said. "My sister said, 'What did you have for breakfast?' I said, 'Stop the car,' but she said, 'That monkey's not getting in my car.' "

When Smith approached the monkey, it headed to the treetops.

"I got ahold of my husband," she said. "His helper got up in the tree. Of course, the minute he did, the monkey swung to another tree."

Rascal eventually ducked into the Smiths' garage, where Mike Warmoth caught him.

Susan Warmoth said Rascal undid the latch on his cage and removed cardboard used to cover a broken window pane to make his escape last Wednesday from their garage.

"I'm just glad he's home and we don't have to worry about it," she said. "Around here, there's a lot of coyotes. We were worried something might get him or he'd get hit out on the road."

Rare monkey found at Fort Bend county farmhouse
Walter - a very rare monkey - had hooked up with a pack of dogs in Ft. Bend County.

By Deborah Wrigley
ABC 13 Eyewitness News
(3/4/02) - The SPCA is called in to take custody of a lot of exotic animals, but none more so than the one it has right now. It's a primate that's so rare most zoos can't get one. And that's the mystery of the monkey.

At the moment, he's called Walter -- a white-crowned Mangaby, one of the rarest creatures in the world. Only about 200 live in the African jungle. But for now, he's at Houston's SPCA after being caught in the wilds of Fort Bend county at an abandoned farmhouse.

On Christmas Eve, there was a report of a monkey sitting on a front porch beside some stray dogs. SPCA investigators thought it was a joke.

It wasn't. Walter had apparently escaped from his owner's home and taken up with the dogs.

Jim Boller/SPCA Investigator: "They were foraging together and whatever the dogs ate he would too, and his natural diet is vegetarian."

Word that he's here has zoos calling. Everyone's curious about the mystery of how he wound up in Texas. There's a theory...

Jim Boller/SPCA Investigator: "Most likely is, they bought him from one of these animals, dispersed to a dealer inappropriately and found his way to Fort Bend county."

Like lions and tigers that have wound up in the SPCA, Walter is an exotic animal That means he's protected by law, but not from black market dealers who promote them as pets.

Patty Mercer/Houston SPCA: "You're finding them in homes and apartments across this country and their numbers are disappearing dramatically in the wild."

Walter though will be luckier than most. There are plans to send him to a program in Europe.

Patty Mercer/Houston SPCA: "They're doing a reintroduction program. So Walter may get to see a jungle yet. He may get to see a jungle or at least be surrounded by individuals of his own kind."

A better life than he's had so far. Walter the monkey may also wind up in a National Geographic production. The Geographic is planning a program on exotic animals mistakenly kept as pets, and the Houston SPCA will be featured.

1/14/2002 6:03:03 PM
Reporter: Cyndee Speers
http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=5658

MONKEY PUT TO SLEEP - Mickey the runaway monkey has been put to sleep.

Last week the 40-pound Japanese snow monkey escaped from a chain-link enclosure in Todd Rhodes' back yard, it's only escape in six months of being there.

Greg Hodges returned home and thought it strange to see a money on the loose as he drove up to his home.

Hodges said when he got out of his car, the money jumped onto his back and began biting his back and hand. He said he was able to throw off the animal, but it tried to attack him again.

Rhodes got the monkey pinned down by the time the animal control officer arrived.

The Knox County Health Department and several experts decided Monday to put Mickey to sleep and have him tested for diseases.

Hodges should know late this week if he's at rick from Mickey's bites.

Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, TN)
January 10, 2002, Thursday

Monkey escapes pen, attacks; 'Vicious' Mickey may be euthanized after biting man

BY: Bryan Mitchell, News-Sentinel staff writer

It was a night of monkey business Wednesday for Wade Dunham of the Knox County Sheriff's Department. But no one is laughing.

A bizarre incident began when a Japanese snow monkey escaped from its chain-linked fence pen on Nicholas Drive shortly after 6 p.m. and began to scour the neighborhood. The 25-pound monkey's owner, Todd Rhodes, claims Wednesday evening's breakout was the first time "Mickey" had escaped during the critter's six-month stay in the back yard of the Northeast Knox County home.

That's of little consequence to Tina Maria Drive resident Greg Hodges, who was a victim of Mickey's aggression.

"I saw (the monkey) near the street as I drove up, and I thought, 'That's kind of weird,' " Hodges said.

However, the incident became even stranger when Mickey came up on Hodges after the man got out of his car. Mickey proceeded to jump on the resident's back.

"It started to bite my back and my hand," Hodges said.

Hodges was able to throw the monkey off his back, but he contends that didn't deter Mickey's aggressiveness.

"It kept coming back for more," Hodges said. "It was a vicious monkey."

Rhodes pinned down the monkey before the arrival of Dunham, an animal-control specialist for the Sheriff's Department. Dunham took Mickey into custody and issued an animal-at-large citation to Rhodes.

Rhodes contended that the monkey is listed as a Class III pet and therefore does not require any special permit. He is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 4 to face the charge.

Hodges said he plans to press charges.

As for Mickey, Dunham said both the Knoxville Zoo and the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine would be given an opportunity to adopt the creature. If not adopted, the monkey will be euthanized.

Bryan Mitchell may be reached at 865-342-6306 or at mitchellb@knews.com.

New Hampshire Sunday News

December 30, 2001
Lost in the woods

A Capuchin monkey lost in the woods drove some Danville residents bananas as repeated attempts to catch the elusive primate failed.

The monkey was first spotted living in the woods in August when it jumped in front of Danville Fire Chief David Kimball as he drove along Kingston Road.

Numerous monkey sightings were reported throughout town after that. Soon the story of Danville's lost monkey gained national attention as Animal Control Officer Denise Laratonda organized a search party in hopes of catching the animal before winter. A trap was placed in the woods, filled with some of the monkey's favorite treats: monkey biscuits, molasses-covered marshmallows, jelly beans and Reese's peanut butter cups.

The owner of the monkey never came forward, making the rescue effort more difficult because searchers didn't know the animal's name.

Despite their efforts, searchers failed to rescue the animal. They called off their search in early December, believing the monkey must have died in the woods.

New Straits Times (Malaysia)
December 4, 2001

Owner of monkey also bitten

KUANTAN, Mon. - The owner of the male monkey which bit a four-year-old boy in Taman Serindit in Kampung Jawa, yesterday, was bitten on both hands by the animal when he tried to capture it. The monkey bit Inthiran Naralingam, 28, when he tried to capture it upon hearing the screams of Mohd Suzarilshah Zakaria.

"I do not know how the animal escaped from the cage and why it went to bite my neighbour's son," Intiran said.

"When I heard a boy screaming I rushed out of my house and saw Mohd Suzarilshah's right arm bleeding ... I then turned to the animal and went to catch it.

"However, when I found it at about 2.10pm, 10-minutes after the incident, it suddenly bit me on both hands," he said here today.

Mohd Suzarilshah was playing in front of his Taman Serindit home at about 2pm yesterday when the monkey suddenly attacked him and bit off a chunk of flesh from the boy's arm.

Inthiran said he plans to release the monkey near a Hindu Temple in Segamat where other primates are found.

"The monkey has become a threat and I do not wish to keep it," he said.

Mohd Suzarilshah's father, Zakaria Mohd Dahlan, 40, when contacted said that his son's arm is still swollen and he is being treated at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital.

"My son received seven stitches on his arm and is in stable condition," he said.

The New Straits Times could not reach the State Wildlife and National Parks Department director Zainuddin Ab Shukor for comment.

Court takes away woman's pet primates
By Dwayne Pickels
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 15, 2001

A deal met in Fayette County court Wednesday means no more monkey business for a Brownsville woman who appealed a conviction on numerous animal cruelty charges.

Janice Ritsko of 509 Baltimore St. agreed yesterday to relinquish her ownership rights to four monkeys and a baboon taken from her care in April and pleaded no contest to three of the 33 animal cruelty citations filed against her by Brownsville Police Officer Autumn Fike.

"I would have been happy to have gone through the whole trial today," Fike said, attributing the plea bargain to the district attorney's office. "But my main priority here was to make sure that she (Ritsko) doesn't have these animals anymore."

Ritsko, 47, had been found guilty on all counts and fined $4,600 following a six-hour hearing in April before Brownsville District Justice Herb Mitchell.

But she appealed that ruling and went before Common Pleas Judge John F. Wagner Jr. yesterday with a plea bargain struck by her defense counsel, Paula Lappe, and Assistant District Attorney Phyllis Jin.

Wagner ordered Ritsko to pay $300 plus fees and court costs for each of the three summary citations, which claimed she failed to provide water for a snow macaque monkey and a vervet monkey as well as access to clean and adequate sanitation for a Dalmation dog.

Another vervet monkey, a squirrel monkey and a baboon also were taken from Ritsko's care during the April raid.

Jin agreed to withdraw the remaining citations under the condition that Ritsko agree never to seek ownership of the animals, which have been in the care of Living Treasures Animal Park at its locations in Donegal Township and New Castle.

Living Treasures owner Kathleen Guiher and Uniontown veterinarian Dr. William Sheperd told Wagner they were willing to waive restitution costs in excess of $22,000 in exchange for Ritsko's agreement to relinquish any ownership claims on the animals.

"We feel that justice is served just getting the animals out of there," Sheperd said.

Ritsko, who sobbed during the court proceeding, "was very upset" over losing the primates, Lappe said. "But she had limited financial resources and could not afford to continue to fight this."

Lappe added her client "is not a mean person. She's just a soft-hearted lady who had a lot of animals."

Fike, a former manager of the Fayette County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, noted the case concluded yesterday was not Ritsko's first brush with the law involving animals.

In 1998, Fike and Redstone Township police charged Ritsko with 80 animal cruelty citations following an Aug. 22 raid on her Best Friends pet store in the village of Republic.

Among the collection of wild and domesticated animals taken in that raid was a 3-year-old, 300-pound, male African lion named "Duke," which prosecutors said had been living in cramped, filthy conditions.

Sheperd reported in December of 1998 that, under his care, the lion gained 150 pounds and was transferred to a wildlife refuge in North Carolina for what he called "a simulated version of life in the wild."

But Ritsko also struck a deal in that case and pleaded guilty to only five of the initial 80 citations for $825 in fines plus fees and court costs. She was allowed to reclaim possession of the two vervet monkeys and the baboon.

Fike said she revisited Ritsko earlier this year after receiving complaints from a former employee about the treatment of the animals in her care.

Along with the monkeys, police took several other dogs and "feral" cats, two birds and a tarantula, Fike said. "It was just disgusting in there."

Sheperd supported Fike's allegations and showed reporters a video and still photographs depicting what he said was feces caked on one of the primates' hands and feet, refuse and feces scattered about their cages and blood and pus on the ears of the malnourished dog.

"It could barely walk when we got it out of there," the veterinarian said, adding all of the animals "are doing fine now."

"She (Ritsko) did love the animals, but she just didn't have the ability to take care of them," Sheperd said, explaining that the primates had to be tranquilized and netted to remove them from their cages and could have seriously harmed Ritsko if she had entered.

"She couldn't go in to clean them or they could have torn her apart," he said. "But none of those animals deserved to be kept like that."

Dwayne Pickels can be reached at dpickels@tribweb.com or (724) 539-3320.

New Straits Times (Malaysia)
October 31, 2001

Monkey attacks boy in his house verandah
By Adrian David

PETALING JAYA, Tues. - A three-year-old boy suffered wounds all over his body after he was bitten by a monkey at his home in Gasing Indah, off Jalan Gasing, today.

Muhammad Mirzan Nadzim, who had to be given 100 stitches for the injuries, was playing on the first-floor verandah of his three-storey house in Jalan 5/58 when he was attacked by the animal at 7am. It could not be established if it was an unprovoked incident or if the boy had attempted to feed the monkey.
Muhammad Mirzan's shouts for help alerted family members who went to his aid, by which time the monkey had darted into the Bukit Gasing primary jungle nearby.

The family rushed Muhammad Mirzan to a nearby clinic before taking him to the Ampang Puteri Hospital where he was admitted to the emergency ward. Fortunately, his vital organs were not injured.

Doctors at the paediatric ward said Muhammad Mirzan could return home tomorrow.

The boy's father, Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia executive secretary Nadzim Johan, said that his son was alone at the time of the attack as the other family members prepared for breakfast.

"Two days ago, another monkey attempted to attack another of my sons, Muhammad Afif, 10, in front of our house. The monkeys also attempted to attack my mother Sharifah Zamnah, 60, some time back.

"On other occasions, the monkeys have damaged flower pots and other household items," said Nadzim.

He added that he and his wife, Norbaini Mohamad Zaini, had advised their five children, aged between three and 15, and their Indonesian maid Zulaika, to be wary of the monkeys.

"We have also heard of the monkeys attacking joggers in the area but our complaints to the authorities have fallen on deaf ears," said Nadzim.

He said that he had telephoned the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council following the attempted attack on Muhammad Afif, and several of the council's officers had visited the area.

"But that's all. No one has taken measures to trap the monkeys of which there is a large population here. I hope something is done fast before someone else suffers a serious or fatal injury," Nadzim said, adding that Muhammad Mirzan's medical bill was big.

PJMC public relations officer Haniza Abdul Hamid promised to investigate the matter. She advised residents there not to feed or provoke the monkeys.

"We are aware of the large monkey population in the area and will direct the Environment Control Department to take action. If needs be, we will seek the assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Department in trapping the monkeys," she said. The council, she added, had trapped monkeys in the area previously.

Attacks by monkeys on people in urban areas are not uncommon.

On Oct 22, a 40-day-old infant sustained facial and head injuries after being snatched from his mother's arms by a pet monkey at their house in Kampung Chenok, Kadok in Kota Baru.

Muhammad Hanif Jasmi was admitted to the Kota Baru Hospital for three days before being discharged. The baby's mother, Rosmaini Lilawati Shaari, 24, was breastfeeding Muhammad Hanif inside the house when the incident happened at 5.30pm.

Fortunately, Rosmaini's sisters-in-law Rosita Yusof, 22, and Rodiah Yusof, 25, came to her aid on hearing the commotion and rescued the baby from the monkey.

adrian@nstp.com.my

New Straits Times (Malaysia)
October 27, 2001

Department to look into case of monkey and infant

KOTA BARU, Fri. - The Wildlife and National Parks Department will investigate the case where a monkey tried to run off with a baby at Kampung Chenok, Kadok, here on Monday. Department deputy director Mohd Nor Ariri Mohd Noor said action would be taken.

He said it was quite normal for monkeys to have a liking for children.

Mohd Nor was commenting on the incident where an infant boy was snatched from his mother by the family's pet monkey on Monday.

Mohamad Hanif Jasni was admitted to the Kota Baru Hospital after he suffered injuries to his face and head in the 5.30pm incident.

Mohd Nor Ariri said it was important for owners to be cautious and ensure that the animals were chained so that they would not escape and harm others.

He said owners also had to apply for a license, which cost RM10 a year, from the department.

Meanwhile, State Veterinary Services director Dr Idris Abdul Kadir said monkeys could infect humans by through bites.

Agence France Presse
October 25, 2001 Thursday

Monkey snatches baby as mother breastfeeds

KOTA BAHARU, Malaysia - A young Malaysian mother was stunned when the family's pet monkey snatched her baby as she was breastfeeding him and dashed out of the house, a report said Thursday.

Cries for help from 24-year-old Rosmani Lilawati Shaari brought three sisters-in-law into the chase and the monkey was finally cornered -- but it would not give up the month-old baby, Bernama news agency reported. "It refused to let my son go, curling up itself instead while hugging my son closer to its chest," said Rosmani.

A 10-minute tug-of-war ensued, with the baby reportedly calm and uncrying in the arms of the monkey, a male, which had escaped from a leash tying it to a tree.

When finally retrieved, the scratched baby was taken to hospital where he was treated for three days before being discharged Wednesday.

Primate sights have some wondering about monkey business
September 11, 2001
DANVILLE, N.H.

There may be some monkey business going on in town.

Roughly a dozen people, including Fire Chief David Kimball, say they recently saw a large monkey on the loose in this small town of 3,800 people in southern New Hampshire.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," he said. Neither could his wife. "She told me I had flipped when I told her."

Kimball said he was driving through town recently when the monkey jumped into the middle of the street, hopped a bit, then lunged away.

On Sunday volunteers and animal control officers used bananas and oranges to try to attract the monkey.

Experts hope to capture the monkey before it gets any cooler. They said otherwise the creature is unlikely to live past November.

Kimball thinks he identified the monkey as a Humbolt's woolly monkey, which is native to the Amazon, after watching television programs on the Adventure Channel.

"It would be quite tall, maybe about four feet, if it were standing straight up, but they walk on all fours, a bit hunched over," he said. He described the creature as very woolly and dark brown all over with a red hue.

Kimball said he thinks somebody in the area was keeping the monkey as a pet, but won't admit it escaped because it is illegal to keep monkeys in New Hampshire.

He said his research indicated Humbolt monkeys supposedly make good pets. He said it is legal to purchase monkeys in Massachusetts.

"He probably got out and no one is owning up to it," Kimball said.

Kimball said he knows of at least eight other people who have spotted the monkey around town.

"They're all getting the same reaction when they tell someone they've seen it," he said. "People tell them they're crazy."

The chief said the town's animal control officer has contacted a wildlife expert, who has expressed interest in trying to trap the monkey.

"Fish and Game had no interest in it because it's not a native animal," Kimball said.

Animal Control Officer Denise Laratondo said she is trying to find the monkey's home.

"We aren't going to press any charges," she said. "We just want to do what's best for this animal and keep it alive."

She also said it is best that people not try to capture the monkey.

"Please let the experts handle it," she said.

Published Friday, September 7, 2001, in the Herald-Leader
Monkey that bit Laurel County girl was not rabid, tests show
SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU

LONDON -- A monkey that bit a 6-year-old Laurel County girl did not have rabies, tests show.

The state Department for Public Health conducted preliminary and confirmation tests on brain tissue from the monkey and the results were negative for rabies, said Ruth Gaines, director of the Laurel County Health Department.

Joe T. Roberts of London, attorney for Jenny and Gary Houston, the monkey's owners, said health officials could have tested the monkey without euthanizing it and removing the head.

However, physicians with the Department for Public Health said there is no other reliable way to check for rabies in animals considered wild. Dogs and cats can be quarantined and observed for signs of the disease, but testing other animals requires samples of brain tissue, said Dr. Steve Englender.

The 8-month-old monkey was on display at a county fair Aug. 18 when it bit the child on the arm. The Houstons maintained the girl had only been scratched.

The case raised attention because a circuit judge held the Houstons in contempt of court last week and jailed them after they initially failed to turn over the monkey for testing. The Houstons got out of jail Saturday.

Roberts said yesterday the monkey was a Mandarin monkey and was considered an endangered species.

A Winchester (New Hampshire) woman helps rehabilitate animals so
they can go back to the wild

(9-1-01)

By SAMANTHA TRETHEWAY for Sentinel Source

When Irene E. Ruth was 7 years old, she thought a monkey would make a good pet. In her dreams, she would dance with the furry creature, and it would sit, perched on her shoulder and await her next command.

The memory makes the 58-year-old from Winchester chuckle. She knows better now.

"I was so wrong -- monkeys shouldn't be pets," Ruth said. "But that was the only wild animal I ever gave a thought to."

It wasn't until she became "too successful" making soft sculpture -- life-sized human figures out of socks, mittens and other fabric -- that she contemplated a change in careers. She enjoyed making shameless hussies and serving butlers for people. But when the orders started piling up and Ruth found herself working long days without much laughter, she knew it was time to stop.

About 15 years ago, Ruth turned to animals for the missing laughter.

Now she takes care of injured and abandoned wild animals. She is licensed by the state and federal governments as a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator. She nurses rescued animals to health and releases them back into the wild.

Ruth said the only way to explain her decision is through a fable. She calls it the starfish story:

One day an old man was walking on a beach. A devastating storm had passed through the night before, and the beach was littered with thousands of starfish dying in the hot sun. He knew they were dying, but what could he do? There were thousands of them.

The old man saw a young boy throwing the five-legged creatures into the sea. The old man asked the young man why he was wasting his time, for there were thousands and thousands of starfish on the beach. How, he asked, can you hope to make a difference?

The young man bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. He looked at the old man and said, "It makes a difference to that one."

"That's how it is," Ruth said. "I'm not going to change the world, but I'm going to make a difference to some of these animals."

This year, Ruth said, she's released nearly 100 animals. Ruth wouldn't say how many animals she's treated that have died. But her blue eyes blurred with a sadness that said "too many."

"It's not always a happy ending," said Robert R. DeSena, a doctor at the Marlborough Veterinarian Clinic. "It's easy to burn out when you're dealing with work that has a lot of heartache. ... She gives (the animals) their best chance of having a happy ending."

Ruth is one of several dozen rehabilitators in New Hampshire. Occasionally, she works with volunteers out of her Winchester home. But for now, she works alone, except for semi-regular visits to DeSena, or "Dr. Bob" as she affectionately calls him.

DeSena and Ruth have worked together to save a bat with a broken wing, a goose with an infected foot, an abused beaver and others.

"Every individual animal who comes across Irene is a lucky individual," DeSena said. "If she could make a difference by nursing one animal back to health and getting it back to the wild, then it's all worthwhile to her."

When Ruth gets a call for an animal in need, the first thing she does is establish that there is indeed a genuine need for rescue.

"Sometimes people kidnap wild animals because they think they're cute," Ruth said. If that's the case, the best thing to do is get the young animal back to its mother. But if the animal needs rescue, she asks about safety. Her first question: Has the rescuer had rabies shots? "You never know with a wild animal," Ruth said.

The next step is to wrap the animal in blankets and keep it in a quiet place until the rescuer can get the animal to Ruth.

At her Winchester home, she nurses the animals to health and then teaches them to fly, crawl, dig and hunt.

In screened cages, she sets up obstacles, such as hollow branches for opossums to crawl through or hanging twigs for bats to maneuver through. There's even a ladder for raccoons to practice their upper arm strength.

Ruth said she wouldn't be able to give the animals the support they need without the help of her husband Gustav Ruth, 60. On July 13, the Ruths celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary.

They first met in high school as friends. But their relationship changed in college. She was majoring in commercial art and he in mechanical engineering, both at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.

They first noticed the relationship shift during a double date -- she was dating his fraternity brother and he was dating her sorority sister. Several years later, they married.

For the first three years, Gustav Ruth flew as an army pilot. After the army, he took a piloting job with TWA, and the Ruths settled in Portsmouth, R.I. There, they began a family that would eventually include three children: Tony, Stacia and Melissa.

Two years ago, the Ruths retired to Winchester. And she began Winchester Wildlife.

"It's perfect," she said. It only takes 12 minutes to drive to Keene, yet the Ruth's, surrounded by 103 acres of land, are isolated from the nearby city.

The property had been owned by "Farmer Brown." After the Ruths hauled off rusty car parts, iron rods, railroad ties, cans, bottles and other junk, Gustav Ruth designed and helped build the house the couple calls home.

There's a pond for ducks, geese, beaver and other water creatures; meadows for opossums to run in; boulders for raccoons to climb; and trees where bats can sleep.

"It just feels good. This house feels good," Ruth said. From the porch, she can watch clouds move across the horizon and listen to birds rubbing their legs together in song. It's usually peaceful except for a few hours on Saturday night, Ruth said with a chuckle. Monadnock Speedway is just down the hill.

"We just wait a few hours, and it's all over," she said.

She walked into the rehabilitation room, an inside room for newly arrived animals.

"He was with someone two weeks," she said pointing at a two inch-long chipmunk crawling along a wire screened cage. The 8-week-old baby chipmunk should hide from humans, Ruth said. Instead he wants to play.

"He has no idea he's a chipmunk. Unless I find him another chipmunk to relate with, he'll never have a normal life in the wild," Ruth said sadly.

Humans should not make pets of wild animals, Ruth said.

"It's illegal," she said, as if the term would deter any potential wrongdoers. It robs the creatures of their wildness. When and if the humans release the wild things into nearby forest, often the animals have lost the instinct to hunt for food.

"Keeping animals is against the law," Ruth said. "A lot of the animals I get -- orphans in particular -- are taken in by people who don't have the right information."

"It's a risk to the people, but it's also a risk to the animal. They need more than bread and water," Ruth said.

At the moment, Winchester Wildlife only accepts mammals. For more information call 239-7552.

The Lexington Herald Leader
September 1, 2001 Saturday FINAL EDITION

INCIDENT INVOLVING A MONKEY LANDS LONDON COUPLE IN JAIL; JUDGE HELD THEM IN CONTEMPT FOR FAILING TO PRODUCE THE PET IN THE CASE OF AN ALLEGED BITE

Ty Tagami, Herald-Leader Staff Writer

A London couple went to jail after failing to turn over a pet monkey accused of attacking a 6-year-old girl during a county festival.

After a hearing Thursday afternoon, a judge ordered Jenny and Gary Houston, both 39, to release the monkey so it could be tested for rabies. But when the deadline of 6 p.m. Thursday arrived, the Houstons told a sheriff's deputy that the monkey had been stolen. Laurel Circuit Judge Roderick Messer found them in contempt of court and ordered them jailed.

"All I can do is believe my clients," said the Houstons' attorney, Joe T. Roberts of London. "They said it was stolen, and I believe them."

To test for rabies, veterinarians need an animal's brain, so the Houstons' pet would have to be decapitated, Roberts said.

The 8-month-old monkey still feeds from a bottle and sucks its thumb, Roberts said. The monkey is not violent; it sleeps with the Houstons' 12-year-old daughter, he said.

Thursday's hearing came after the Laurel County Board of Health sued on behalf of the bite victim, who was not identified. She was said to have been bitten on the arm on Aug. 18 at the Laurel County homecoming fair, where the monkey was on display.

The Houstons, owners of Kinnlee Stables, a petting zoo, maintain that the girl was merely scratched, Roberts said.

An official from the county health board testified Thursday that the girl was bitten, Roberts said. A local doctor and a veterinarian for the Kentucky Department of Public Health filed affidavits insisting that such bites could transmit fatal diseases, including rabies.

Roberts said Jenny Houston testified that she had contacted several zoos and was told that monkeys such as hers -- a Mandarin monkey -- do not carry rabies. The couple sent off the monkey's blood for a test, but the results aren't back yet, Roberts said.

Roberts said the hearing was not equitable "because we didn't have time to show that the monkey was not dangerous."

He said his clients will sit in jail until Messer decides to release them, since a contempt charge carries no bond.

Reach Ty Tagami at (859) 231-3414 or ttagami@herald-leader.com.

Newsday (New York)
August 18, 2001 Saturday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION
For Coco, No More Monkeying Around

BY: By Mitchell Freedman; STAFF WRITER

Coco, the year-old capuchin monkey who walked away from a petting zoo in Manorville a week ago, apparently decided late Thursday that she had more than enough time alone in the woods. She made her way to a mini-mart at a Hess gas station a few hundred yards from the zoo, waited for a customer to open the door and walked right in. Looking around, the foot-tall monkey then found her way to a back room.

Attendant Kristen Miller approached her and struck up a friendship. "I just started to talk to her. She held my hand. Then she sat on my shoulder," said Miller, of Center Moriches, who has a dog and four pet rabbits.

"I just watched her eyes. She never hissed or anything ... she's so cute."

While Miller was making friends with Coco, another employee went down the road and knocked on the office door, where Animal Farm owner Martin Albach was working late.

"We had gotten a lot of calls from people. I knew it [finding Coco] was getting close," he said.

"Some were from Westhampton and Setauket, but we had some good ones from around here."

Miller was feeding Coco a banana when Albach called his son, John, and the two came to get the monkey. She refused to go into a cage they brought with them, and a net didn't work. Instead, Miller took a long leash and snapped it on Coco's collar. Then the monkey climbed onto John's shoulder.

The Hess workers knew what to do because Martin Albach had gone to the station several times in the past week, asking about the monkey. "He was really upset," Miller said.

When Coco got back, Albach fed her, gave her some herbal tea, which acts as a sedative, a vitamin B-12 shot and then a flea dip. He and his son took turns staying up until about 5 a.m. to make sure she was all right. The monkey didn't appear to have lost weight during her odyssey, Albach said.

Now, the zoo owners are building a second door on the outside of her new cage, one that will act as a lock so she can't just run out again. One swinging door wasn't enough to hold her last Saturday night.

Coco and some other animals had been to a nursing home in Brooklyn to entertain the residents, and she was brought back to the big cage that had recently been built for her.

The cage was strange, and Coco was tired. "She went in, and went right out the door. She climbed a tree," Albach said. "In the morning, she was in another tree." The tree was about 30 feet tall. It was a lot bigger than the 7-foot fence around the zoo property.

Albach doesn't know when Coco climbed over the fence and walked across the road. "She was playing hide and seek with us," he said. "Was I upset? I haven't slept in three nights."

Albach said Coco seemed to have enjoyed her little stroll through the wilds of Manorville, even if she didn't get the three regular meals a day that she is used to. The lumber for the double-door entrance to her new cage was still on the ground yesterday, waiting to be securely anchored. "That's what we should have done in the first place," Albach said.
August 09, 2001
http://www.herald-mail.com/news/2001/08/09/local/W_Va__women_say_pet_mon.html
W.Va. women say pet monkey bit kids
By ANDREW SCHOTZ

A pet monkey that allegedly bit three south Berkeley County children is under quarantine while it's tested for diseases.

Helena Hendricks said her 15-year-old daughter, Brandy Brooks, has had two blood samples drawn so she could be tested for herpes, tuberculosis, HIV and other conditions.

Brandy said she was bitten outside her home at Eastwood Trailer Home Park, off W.Va. 51, on July 27. As she greeted some new neighbors, she noticed that the monkey she said belonged to a neighbor had gotten loose, so she tried to use a Cheeto as a lure to catch it.

The monkey took the Cheeto, then jumped up and bit her once inside her left elbow and once on her outer right wrist, Brandy said. The small wounds were visible on her arms Thursday, one day after the county's Animal Control Department confiscated the monkey.

Michelle Heminway said her 10-year-old daughter Destiny was also bitten July 27, about a week after she moved into the trailer park from Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Heminway planned to take Destiny to the hospital for testing Thursday night. Destiny had a mark on her arm from the bite, which may not have broken the skin.

The Berkeley County Sheriff's Department identified the third victim as 3-year-old Tina Maddox, whose family also lives at Eastwood. Tina was bitten several days before the other two girls, Hendricks said.

Hendricks said the monkey, which is kept on a dog leash, has gotten loose several times in the approximately four months it has been at Eastwood. She said the incident has left her "stressed out."

There is apparently nothing in West Virginia's laws that prevents keeping a monkey as a pet. The state's Department of Health and Human Resources, Department of Agriculture and Division of Natural Resources do not have guidelines covering monkeys or other exotic animals, so they are not regulated, officials from those agencies said.

An owner only needs a permit "if the animal has historically lived (in the state)," said Art Shomo, a public information specialist for the Division of Natural Resources. That would include anything from a raccoon to a wolf or a buffalo, he said.

The identity of the monkey's owner could not be confirmed Thursday, although Hendricks and Heminway pointed to a trailer.

No one answered the door at that trailer Thursday evening. Hendricks said the monkey is called Nay-Nay.

The case is new territory for Berkeley County authorities, who said they have never investigated a monkey bite before.

If the animal were a dog, the procedure would be obvious, said County Commissioner Robert Burkhart. "This is a whole new ball game."

The monkey appears to be a macaque, possibly a Rhesus, which is native to southern Asia. It has a small head and a long tail.

Berkeley County Animal Control Officer Ray Strine said he hopes the monkey is not confined long at his office. The monkey urinates on others when it's agitated, and must be separated from the dogs, Strine said.

Lt. K.C. Bohrer of the sheriff's department, who is investigating the bites, said he has heard of other people in the county owning monkeys.

Strine said the last investigation into exotic animals, in 1997, involved a woman who owned a cougar, a llama, two emus, a wolf and a fallow deer.

07/19/2001
http://phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2001-07-19/news2.html

Macaque Attack
Emotional case resolves youngster's future
By Maria Luisa Tucker

Two-year-old Mason Alan couldn't have known about the fierce custody battle raging between his original adoptive parents and another caretaker struggling to keep the youngster at her side.

Nor would he have cared.

The brown-eyed, brown-haired imp just wanted what all babies want: loving arms to hold him, food in his belly, a place to sleep following another busy day spent with his playmates.

The court case involving Mason, which was decided by a Maricopa County jury in May, unfolded like thousands of custody wars fought before it.

Emotions ran high over the little guy, with talk of his best interests, rightful guardianship and even threats of violence rocking the lives of Shirley Godee, Kimberly Connell and Richard Smith, according to court papers.

Jurors ultimately decided to let Mason stay at Godee's home, among his own kind, grooming his playmates, swinging from ropes.

Mason is a macaque monkey.

"It was like losing a child," says Connell.

Connell and Smith declined repeated requests for further comment, following a loss they say broke their hearts.

What began as either a pet-sitting gig or an adoption -- depending on which side you choose to believe -- became the first civil court case of its kind in Arizona, with two people suing to recover a monkey, according to the attorney representing Godee.

In the summer of 1999, Mason the monkey was living with Connell and Smith in Nevada. The couple decided to move to Connecticut, where exotic pets like Mason are not allowed. They found a new home for the monkey with Godee, a Maricopa County resident who already had two other macaques. Mason moved from his Las Vegas home to Maricopa County in August of that year and Connell and Smith headed east.

At the time of the transfer, Mason was just 2 1/2 years old. In another year or two he would reach maturity, weighing about 15 to 25 pounds and standing almost two feet tall, not including his tail.

Just weeks after the move, however, Connell and Smith decided they wanted their monkey back, though it is unclear whether they planned to take him to Connecticut or have Godee keep him until they moved back. When they asked Godee to hand over Mason, she refused.

That's when things got ugly.

The battle for the monkey mushroomed from a dispute between animal lovers, to formal complaints, to a civil lawsuit.

In December 1999, Connell submitted a complaint to the Maricopa County Superior Court asking for a judgment to recover personal property she claimed was being unlawfully detained. In the complaint, Connell stated that Godee had agreed to return Mason on demand at any time during the two months following his arrival at her home.

Godee denied that agreement existed, and responded with a counterclaim seeking damages for emotional distress. The counterclaim states that Smith, during a phone call, "threatened Godee with coming to Arizona and putting a gun to her head," according to court documents.

Both complaint and counterclaim went unresolved after a mediation session was offered, so Connell filed a formal lawsuit.

Because the parties agreed to have their case heard in a special speedy format, no transcript of the trial exists. According to other court documents, Connell emphasized legal ownership of the monkey, while Godee built her case around what she believed were Mason's best interests. A blank certificate of ownership and the original agreement between Connell, Smith and Godee were cornerstones of the dispute.

Godee argued that Mason had already become part of a troop with her other macaques and said his health could suffer if he was removed. Further, she argued, Mason had gained weight and grown a fuller coat in her care. She claimed in court papers that Mason was too small for his age when he came to live with her.

Connell and Smith maintained that a member of the family had been ripped away from them and said Godee had not kept her word.

"It was a difficult case," says Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hotham, who presided over the trial. "They talked in terms of being parents."

The jury was instructed to answer one legal question -- was Mason being "wrongfully detained" by Godee? The four jurors found he wasn't and unanimously voted in favor of her continued custody of the monkey. Godee won nothing for her counterclaim of emotional distress.

"We really felt for the client [Connell], but the paperwork was not legal," says one of the jurors, who has asked to remain anonymous. "We thought there was something funny about the whole situation . . . but like we said, our hands were tied," she says, adding that there appeared to be a miscommunication about the paperwork with the woman who delivered Mason to Godee's home.

Though Godee also refused to comment, photos of her two other macaques are available online through the "munky mugs" link.

Godee. It is clear that she treats her monkeys like a doting mother.

The care and expense of caring for monkeys can create a bond that surpasses the love of an average pet, says Lu Hall, treasurer of the Simian Society of America.

"The love you feel for a monkey is similar to the love you have for your children," she says.

And if a pet is like a family member, then a monkey is the problem child.

Hall, a fellow macaque monkey owner, has traded animal advice with Godee for years, and says they both know all about monkey trouble.

Though monkeys are cute and easily handled as babies, when they reach sexual maturity they often become erratic creatures that can wreak havoc, kind of like teenagers, except they can stay that way for 30-odd years.

Monkeys, especially larger ones like macaques, can injure caretakers with bites and scratches, and can easily get into cabinets and destroy furnishings.

Buying a macaque costs between $3,500 to $6,000, says Hall, and contact with the animal, in addition to feeding and cleaning the cages, requires a minimum of four hours a day.

The time and money devoted to a pet don't matter in court.

"I know they can be a substitute for a child," says Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bethany Hicks, who presides over family court. But in Arizona a pet is considered property.

Hicks and her colleagues occasionally see pet custody become an issue in divorce cases. It has become such an issue for some people that one Web site, petcustody.com, sells legal forms to protect a pet owner's rights. The forms include addenda that cover the ownership of pets in pre-nuptial agreements and divorce decrees, to documents outlining pet-visitation rights.

There was a time when people treated their pets like pets, says local pet counselor Kay Cox.

"In today's world we've made our animals our children," she says.

The Mirror
June 16, 2001, Saturday

SEXY SALMA IN APE BITE FRIGHT

BY: Heather Ramsay

STUNNING Salma Hayek was attacked by a monkey on the set of her latest movie. The 34-year-old actress suffered nerve and ligament damage after the angry ape sank its teeth into the leading lady.

Wild Wild West star Salma was filming new film Frida in Mexico when she was attacked.

She said: "It went for my face but got my hands, arms and fingers as I defended myself. I'm marked for life. The bites were extremely painful."

The capuchin monkey had been hired to be the on-screen pet of her character, real-life artist Frida Kahlo.

Omaha World-Herald
June 15, 2001, Friday METRO EDITION

Monkey in Zoo's Jungle Bites Hand That Feeds It
NIZ PROSKOCIL

A squirrel monkey roaming freely inside the Lied Jungle at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo bit a woman's finger last week after she offered it a cookie.

Zoo director Dr. Lee Simmons said the woman, Latoya Felder, was attempting to feed the monkey a cookie when it nipped her finger June 9. "It was not a serious bite," Simmons said. "A monkey that size isn't capable of it."

The monkey in question weighs 1 pound, he said. This is the second monkey in a month to bite a Doorly Zoo visitor.

Simmons said it's unfortunate that Felder was bitten, but that she should have known better. Signs throughout the zoo prohibit feeding the animals.

Simmons considers the monkey's behavior "standard operating procedure."

"If you give them something, they'll want to take it."

Felder was treated at the zoo's Health Hut, where a nurse cleaned and bandaged the cut above her fingernail.

"We're sorry this happened," Simmons said. "We don't want anybody hurt in no shape or form, but if everybody reads the signs and obeys the rule, then this wouldn't happen." Felder could not be reached for comment.

Thursday, 05/31/01
Parents sue after girl bitten by chimp
By JANET LETHGO, Staff Writer

FRANKLIN - Monkey flees, monkey sued. The owner of a chimpanzee film performer that bit a girl last year at a video store promotion here is among those facing a lawsuit filed by the girl's family.

The suit names Sidney Jay Yost (also known as Ranger Rick Kelly), who owns chimp Angel Holliday, production company Critter Gitters and Blockbuster Inc., the video store where the chimpanzee and his owner were appearing as a promotion for a film.

Yost, who lives in California, was issued a citation for violating Tennessee's exotic animal law, but he failed to show up in court and has never paid the fine. Also, the lawsuit alleges that Yost left the state with Angel before the animal could be quarantined, as is customary in bite cases.

Gordon and Lynn Hampton are seeking $50,000 in damages, according to their lawyer, Charles G. Blackard III, for their daughter Haley's pain and suffering and problems she may have after the April 9, 2000, incident at the Williamson Square Blockbuster Video.

Yost and Angel were in the video store promoting their latest Critter Gitters movie, The High Sierra Adventure, one of a series of children's films. The girl's parents had just snapped a photo of her with Angel when the chimp bit her.

''There is a question whether the teeth may have gone through her whole hand. She had some stitches and swelling, but no reconstructive surgery. It was a pretty fierce bite,'' Blackard said.

According to the lawsuit, Yost, Critter Gitters and Blockbuster should have known of the dangers of subjecting Angel to a crowded area with so many children, and Yost and Critter Gitters should have obtained an exotic wildlife permit from Tennessee.

Yost did autograph a picture of Angel and himself. Inscribed was a message to Haley: ''We are so sorry and hope you get well soon. .''

Blackard said none of the parties listed in the lawsuit offered to pay for medical expenses.

Angel should have been quarantined for observation just like any other animal that bites a human, Blackard said.

The absence of the chimp and her handler left the Hamptons worried about potential disease.

Thursday, 05/31/01
Family of chimp bite victim seeks $50,000
By JANET LETHGO, Staff Writer

FRANKLIN - It was bad enough that chimpanzee Angel Holliday bit a little girl, but the monkey's business got even more complicated when its owner left the state and the family wondering whether the toothy primate had any contagious diseases.

So the girl's family will sue Angel's owner, Sidney Jay Yost (also known as Ranger Rick Kelly), production company Critter Gitters and Blockbuster Inc., the video store where the chimpanzee chomped almost clear through the girl's hand a year ago in April.

Gordon and Lynn Hampton are seeking $50,000 in damages, according to their lawyer, Charles G. Blackard III, for their daughter Haley's pain and suffering and possible future problems she may have after the chimp attack at the Williamson Square Blockbuster Video.

The girl, 9, was there at the same time Yost and Angel were in the video tore promoting their latest Critter Gitter movie, The High Sierra Adventure, one of a series of children's films. The High Sierra Adventure is about the Critter Gitters traveling deep into the Sierra Mountains to uncover the mystery of an unusual bear encounter. Blockbuster was promoting the film with Yost and Angel's appearance.

Angel and Yost live in California. The girl's parents had just snapped a photo of their daughter and Angel, when the chimp bit her.

''There is a question whether the teeth may have gone through her whole hand. She had some stitches and swelling, but no reconstructive surgery. It was a pretty fierce bite,'' said lawyer Blackard.

But, according to the lawsuit, Yost, Critter Gitters and Blockbuster should have known of the inherent dangers of subjecting Angel to a crowded area with so many children present, and Yost and Critter Gitters also should have obtained an exotic wildlife permit from the state of Tennessee. Yost was issued a citation for violating the state's exotic animal law, but he failed to return to show up in court for a hearing on the violation and has never paid the fine.

Yost did autograph a picture of Angel and himself with a message to Haley: ''We are so sorry and hope you get well soon.''

Blackard said that none of the parties listed in the suit ever offered to pay for the immediate medical expenses incurred when the chimp bit.

The chimpanzee attack has left Haley with scars on her hand, but it also changed the way she feels about animals of all kinds.

''It had a lasting effect on her. She is not as enamored with animals as she once was. The family feels that they needed to pursue it; the way it was handled was pretty discouraging,'' Blackard said.

The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
May 17, 2001, Thursday

POLK HEALTH OFFICIALS PLAN TO EXAMINE THE TINY MARMOSET FOR HERPES AND RABIES; BITING MONKEY'S OWNER COMES FORWARD

ERIC PERA The Ledger

LAKELAND -- An infant South American marmoset that bit two people at a Lakeland art festival last weekend likely will be placed in quarantine today and examined for a dangerous virus and rabies.

Sandra Crossman of Auburndale, owner of the pint-sized primate, came forward Wednesday after learning her monkey was the subject of a Health Department search.

Health officials Wednesday issued Crossman an order for quarantine, stemming from Saturday's attack of two people at Mayfaire by-the-Lake, an annual art festival at Lake Morton.

Dr. Daniel Haight, Polk County's health director, said that because the tiny monkey is a pet, chances are slim that it carries rabies. Additionally, he said, "It appears that the monkey is of a species that tends to not carry the herpes B (virus). That helps reduce the risk."

Because Crossman did not register her exotic pet, as required by law, a state wildlife officer will inspect her home sometime today to determine whether she is complying with other regulations.

Crossman, a nurse, faces a fine for failing to register her monkey with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She also could be fined and charged with failing to keep her pet under control, said commission spokesman Gary Morse. "People who have these type of pets need to be aware of the laws."

Reached at her home Wednesday night, Crossman said she didn't know that she needed a state license to keep the marmoset she purchased as a 2-week-old in October.

She said she contacted health officials immediately Wednesday morning after reading The Ledger and learning that officials wanted to find her. "I will do whatever they tell me to do," she said. "Now my concern is my little monkey."

While attending Mayfaire on Saturday, Crossman carried her pet monkey in a canvas bag and posed for pictures. Spectators were drawn to the tiny, bug-eating simian, which was attached to a leash.

But the seemingly docile marmoset leapt from Crossman's bag and bit or scratched two bystanders, both of whom sought medical treatment for herpes B, which can be fatal if left untreated.

Betsy Floyd, 50, of Bartow, said she never even noticed Crossman until her pet clamped its teeth into Floyd's palm.

"It came at me really quick," she said. "It scared me."

Floyd, who owns a title insurance company, said she dismissed the incident until she read of a similar incident in Wednesday's Ledger and discovered that monkey bites can be dangerous, even fatal.

Minutes after biting Floyd, the monkey bit and scratched Michael Butler, 42, of Lakeland, who was treated for a minor bite and scratches on his left forearm.

Butler, a self-employed home inspector, and Floyd said they didn't get Crossman's name after the incidents, which spurred the search by health officials.

Butler was interviewed Wednesday by Tampa radio and television stations in hopes that the monkey's owner would be found in time for him to avoid rabies shots.

Crossman's pet will be held by Polk Animal Services for a minimum of 10 days, although it was unclear Wednesday evening who would be responsible for confiscating the animal, Morse said.

"There's always questions when it comes to jurisdiction of this kind of stuff," he said.

Richard Cutforth, a mechanical engineer from Winter Haven who was taking photographs Saturday at Mayfaire, couldn't resist squeezing a few shots of the perky marmoset.

"It even jumped on my shoulder," Cutforth said, "but it didn't seem aggressive at all."

Butler and Floyd said they were relieved to know the animal's owner was complying with health officials, but they felt Crossman should have taken more care with her pet at a public event.

"Once it bit somebody, she should have left immediately," Butler said.

Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528.

National Conference of State Legislatures
May 1, 2001
SECTION: No. 5, Vol. 27; Pg. 9 ; ISSN: 0147-6041

MONKEY BUSINESS NOT WHAT YOU THINK; proposed amendment to prohibit monkeys as pets

Zoo officials and animal rescue activists are trying to make it harder to buy and sell pet monkeys. For between $ 1,800 to $ 25,000, you can buy a cute, diapered infant monkey through the Internet or newspaper ads. But owners are finding out that wild means just that; as they grow they bite people and destroy property. That's when the calls come to the zoo and rescue centers begging them to take the little hooligans away. In Kentucky, the activists sought an amendment to the state's Dangerous Animal Act that would classify all non-human primates as dangerous animals. It found opponents in pet shop owners and animal breeders who argued they would be put out of business by the amendment. The business owners won.

The Jerusalem Post
March 14, 2001, Wednesday

How to cope with monkey business and come up smiling
By: D'Vora Ben Shaul

Everyone I have ever known who had a pet monkey had problems with it. Here's what a reader in the coastal plain writes:

"I have a two-year-old squirrel monkey (captive born). She is very sweet and loving, but sometimes bites me. Since she is so small the bites usually don't even break the skin, but they do leave a bruise. "She has a large cage, 3.5 meters high, 2.5 m. long and 2 m. deep. She gets good food, but seems unwell - she mopes, doesn't play with her toys as she used to and doesn't eat as well.

"I took her to a veterinarian and he examined her - he even did a chest X-ray - but he said she is healthy. What can I do?"

As to the first problem - well, monkeys bite! Little monkeys have little bites and big monkeys have big bites, but they all bite. It is usually from frustration, but what you describe isn't a real bite.

Monkeys have very sharp little teeth and can give a respectable bite when they wish. What you most likely have here is a case of affection mixed with frustration.

Since your pet doesn't have tuberculosis (the great killer of captive monkeys), I would explore two avenues. First, diet.

This should include not only fruit and vegetables but nuts and cereal products such as whole-grain bread and whole-grain cooked cereal or oatmeal. Don't forget eggs. In the wild squirrel monkeys do a lot of nest robbing and will even eat unhatched embryos, so a small sliver of cooked chicken breast now and then will not go amiss. But avoid sweets, potatoes and salt.

If your pet's diet is satisfactory, however, she may simply be lonely. One thing you didn't mention was how much time she spends alone.

Squirrel monkeys are very gregarious and live in fairly large troupes, so keeping one in solitary confinement is not a good idea.

If you could get her another squirrel monkey as a companion that would be ideal, but she might well also make friends with a young kitten or even a long-haired cavy (whistler).

I have seen many lonely monkeys perk up once they had a companion.

In the meantime, leaving the radio on when she is alone, or even the TV, if she can see it, would probably help.

Remember that monkeys see extremely well and love color and motion. Toys that make a noise and move may also help. You will have to experiment and see what works best.

Chicago Tribune
March 7, 2001 Wednesday, LAKE EDITION

IT'S PET MONKEY BUSINESS AS USUAL AS STATE CURBS FAIL; HEALTH, SAFETY ISSUES DON'T SWAY LAWMAKERS

BY: By William Mullen, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune staff writer Joe Biesk contributed to this report.

When it comes to pets, few are more expensive than cute, doe-eyed, diapered infant monkeys that exotic animal dealers peddle over the Internet and through newspaper want ads from $1,800 to $25,000.

"They are sweet and they are fun, when they're babies," said April Truitt, owner of a Kentucky rescue center that takes in abandoned monkeys, "but it's another story when they get to be adults and they start biting everybody in the house. "That's when people start calling us, sobbing into the phone, hoping and begging us to take the little buggers off their hands."

Reacting to an unending string of bitten and injured owners bloodied by adopted monkeys, zoo officials and animal welfare activists went to Springfield Tuesday to campaign for more stringent controls on the pet monkey trade in the state. They met with overwhelming resistance, however, as the House Agriculture Committee for the second year in a row killed the measure.

The activists had sought an amendment to the state's Dangerous Animal Act that would classify all non-human primates as dangerous animals.

"Pet monkeys have become both a public health concern and a safety concern," Dr. David Bromwell, the state Department of Agriculture veterinarian, said before the hearing. "They are carriers of several threatening human diseases, including hepatitis. As they mature, they are not gentle, easily controlled animals. They can and they do bite people, often children."

Opponents of the proposed legislation at the hearing, including pet shop owners and animal breeders, argued they would be put out of business by the amendment.
Most of the testimony for the amendment emphasized that primates, from spider monkeys to chimpanzees, are wild animals with dangerous and unpredictable behaviors.

"They should never be thought of as pets," said Peter Bukowski, a chastened Chicago construction contractor who bought a 3-week-old male capuchin monkey, Oliver, from a dealer in Indiana five years ago.

Bukowski, who emigrated with his wife, Marzena, and daughter, Monika, from Poland 11 years ago, said he paid $3,000 for Oliver, to fulfill his wife's dream, harbored since reading Pippi Longstocking stories as a girl, of owning a monkey.

Oliver was adorable, said Bukowski, but so miserable when left alone at night that Bukowski and his wife soon had him in diapers and in their bed.

The Bukowskis soon had to strip the room of any movable objects.

"He would grab perfume bottles and empty them into his hands and rub all over himself," said Bukowski. "We installed special locks on the dresser drawers, because he would open them up and fling the contents all over the room."

It got worse.

"He would grab a sharp knife and run around with it, and the older he got, the less he listened when I commanded him to drop things," said Bukowski.

"Once he jumped on my daughter's neck with a knife and was waving it about her face."

Still, Oliver was a charmer.

"We have dogs and cats, and we love them," said Bukowski, "but a monkey is something special. They look in your eyes with such intelligence, and they reach out and stroke your face with the palms of their beautiful little hands. We were so nuts about Oliver, we put up with the bad stuff."

They did, at least, until he reached sexual maturity last summer. Then, on the deck of their vacation home in Wisconsin, he attacked Bukowski.

"He had grabbed a gallon of deck sealant, and when I told him to put it down, he leaped on me, biting my belly, making me bleed.

"Once he bit me the first time and saw me withdraw, then the violence skyrocketed. He contested everything I said or did, and any movement or look could spark an attack."

Desperate, they called Brookfield Zoo's primate experts to see if they could take Oliver.

The zoo gets dozens of such calls every year from owners of pet monkeys, said Melinda Pruitt-Jones, Brookfield's primate curator. A mother called her last Friday, she said, begging her to take the family's 6-year-old monkey, which had started biting her young children.

"Human-raised monkeys come to us unsocialized and maladjusted, and we can't place them with our monkeys, so we just don't take people's pets," she said.

With help from Truitt, Oliver finally was placed in a sanctuary in San Antonio.

Nobody knows how many primates are kept in the U.S. as pets in private homes, because virtually no laws regulate primate breeding and sales or set standards of keeping them. Pet monkeys are thought to number in the thousands nationally and at least in the hundreds in Illinois.

Chicago's Animal Control Department gets roughly 10 calls per year from people asking to have a pet monkey removed from their home. Cook County gets a similar number of calls, while zoos get dozens of calls annually from people asking officials to take away loved but dangerous pets.

Pruitt-Jones, who went to Springfield with Brookfield Zoo Director George Rabb to join other animal experts in favoring the amendment, said the problem is that the trade in monkeys is very lucrative.

"This is a growing commercial trade," she said, "where breeders pull newborns at 1 week old and put them on the market in newspapers and now nationwide on the Internet. They charge $3,000 to $4,000 for a spider monkey baby, $2,500 to $4,500 for a capuchin, $2,000 for a golden lion tamarin.

"A gibbon or a chimpanzee could go for as much as $50,000 or more. There are a lot of unfortunate things happening to people and to animals because of the money involved."

The Illinois Dangerous Animal Act forbids people from keeping big cats like lions and tigers as pets, as well as bears, hyenas, wolves, coyotes and dangerous reptiles.

At hearings on the proposed legislation, monkey owner Robert Hoffmann, president of Animal Kingdom Inc. in Chicago, testified against the bill.

"In terms of a danger to the public, any responsible owner is like driving a car responsibly," Hoffmann said. "I have a monkey, like I said, he goes literally to hundreds of schools and sees thousands of kids. And they're all able to pet him and touch him while I'm there. I'm there to supervise. Would I leave him alone with the kids? Absolutely not. Because under those circumstances, as soon as the kids start to grab or try to do something they shouldn't, he might nip. But as long as I'm there supervising, I watch the kids--I don't let the kids yank his tail or do anything like that."

Chicago Tribune
March 7, 2001 Wednesday
LAKE EDITION
IT'S PET MONKEY BUSINESS AS USUAL AS STATE CURBS FAIL;
HEALTH, SAFETY ISSUES DON'T SWAY LAWMAKERS

BY: By William Mullen, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune staff writer Joe Biesk contributed to this report

When it comes to pets, few are more expensive than cute, doe-eyed, diapered infant monkeys that exotic animal dealers peddle over the Internet and through newspaper want ads from $1,800 to $25,000.

"They are sweet and they are fun, when they're babies," said April Truitt, owner of a Kentucky rescue center that takes in abandoned monkeys, "but it's another story when they get to be adults and they start biting everybody in the house.

"That's when people start calling us, sobbing into the phone, hoping and begging us to take the little buggers off their hands."

Reacting to an unending string of bitten and injured owners bloodied by adopted monkeys, zoo officials and animal welfare activists went to Springfield Tuesday to campaign for more stringent controls on the pet monkey trade in the state. They met with overwhelming resistance, however, as the House Agriculture Committee for the second year in a row killed the measure.

The activists had sought an amendment to the state's Dangerous Animal Act that would classify all non-human primates as dangerous animals.

"Pet monkeys have become both a public health concern and a safety concern," Dr. David Bromwell, the state Department of Agriculture veterinarian, said before the hearing. "They are carriers of several threatening human diseases, including hepatitis. As they mature, they are not gentle, easily controlled animals. They can and they do bite people, often children."

Opponents of the proposed legislation at the hearing, including pet shop owners and animal breeders, argued they would be put out of business by the amendment.

Most of the testimony for the amendment emphasized that primates, from spider monkeys to chimpanzees, are wild animals with dangerous and unpredictable behaviors.

"They should never be thought of as pets," said Peter Bukowski, a chastened Chicago construction contractor who bought a 3-week-old male capuchin monkey, Oliver, from a dealer in Indiana five years ago.

Bukowski, who emigrated with his wife, Marzena, and daughter, Monika, from Poland 11 years ago, said he paid $3,000 for Oliver, to fulfill his wife's dream, harbored since reading Pippi Longstocking stories as a girl, of owning a monkey.

Oliver was adorable, said Bukowski, but so miserable when left alone at night that Bukowski and his wife soon had him in diapers and in their bed.

The Bukowskis soon had to strip the room of any movable objects.

"He would grab perfume bottles and empty them into his hands and rub all over himself," said Bukowski. "We installed special locks on the dresser drawers, because he would open them up and fling the contents all over the room."

It got worse.

"He would grab a sharp knife and run around with it, and the older he got, the less he listened when I commanded him to drop things," said Bukowski. "Once he jumped on my daughter's neck with a knife and was waving it about her face."

Still, Oliver was a charmer.

"We have dogs and cats, and we love them," said Bukowski, "but a monkey is something special. They look in your eyes with such intelligence, and they reach out and stroke your face with the palms of their beautiful little hands. We were so nuts about Oliver, we put up with the bad stuff."

They did, at least, until he reached sexual maturity last summer. Then, on the deck of their vacation home in Wisconsin, he attacked Bukowski.

"He had grabbed a gallon of deck sealant, and when I told him to put it down, he leaped on me, biting my belly, making me bleed.

"Once he bit me the first time and saw me withdraw, then the violence skyrocketed. He contested everything I said or did, and any movement or look could spark an attack."

Desperate, they called Brookfield Zoo's primate experts to see if they could take Oliver.

The zoo gets dozens of such calls every year from owners of pet monkeys, said Melinda Pruitt-Jones, Brookfield's primate curator. A mother called her last Friday, she said, begging her to take the family's 6-year-old monkey, which had started biting her young children.

"Human-raised monkeys come to us unsocialized and maladjusted, and we can't place them with our monkeys, so we just don't take people's pets," she said.

With help from Truitt, Oliver finally was placed in a sanctuary in San Antonio.

Nobody knows how many primates are kept in the U.S. as pets in private homes, because virtually no laws regulate primate breeding and sales or set standards of keeping them. Pet monkeys are thought to number in the thousands nationally and at least in the hundreds in Illinois.

Chicago's Animal Control Department gets roughly 10 calls per year from people asking to have a pet monkey removed from their home. Cook County gets a similar number of calls, while zoos get dozens of calls annually from people asking officials to take away loved but dangerous pets.

Pruitt-Jones, who went to Springfield with Brookfield Zoo Director George Rabb to join other animal experts in favoring the amendment, said the problem is that the trade in monkeys is very lucrative.

"This is a growing commercial trade," she said, "where breeders pull newborns at 1 week old and put them on the market in newspapers and now nationwide on the Internet. They charge $3,000 to $4,000 for a spider monkey baby, $2,500 to $4,500 for a capuchin, $2,000 for a golden lion tamarin.

"A gibbon or a chimpanzee could go for as much as $50,000 or more. There are a lot of unfortunate things happening to people and to animals because of the money involved."

The Illinois Dangerous Animal Act forbids people from keeping big cats like lions and tigers as pets, as well as bears, hyenas, wolves, coyotes and dangerous reptiles.

At hearings on the proposed legislation, monkey owner Robert Hoffmann, president of Animal Kingdom Inc. in Chicago, testified against the bill.

"In terms of a danger to the public, any responsible owner is like driving a car responsibly," Hoffmann said. "I have a monkey, like I said, he goes literally to hundreds of schools and sees thousands of kids. And they're all able to pet him and touch him while I'm there. I'm there to supervise. Would I leave him alone with the kids? Absolutely not. Because under those circumstances, as soon as the kids start to grab or try to do something they shouldn't, he might nip. But as long as I'm there supervising, I watch the kids--I don't let the kids yank his tail or do anything like that."

The Standard (St. Catharines)
February 21, 2001 Wednesday Final Edition
Crystal Beach Girl 'traumatized' by bite from spider monkey

A young Crystal Beach girl who had the tip of a finger bitten off by a monkey at a Stevensville petting zoo Sunday afternoon spent Sunday night having nightmares about being attacked by the creatures, says her mother.

"She said there were three monkeys after her," said Joanne Rutter. "She was absolutely traumatized."

Audrey Rutter, 6, was visiting Papa Steve's Petting Zoo at the Stevensville Garden Gallery with her parents when one of the zoo's two spider monkeys bit about one centimetre off the tip of the girl's right index finger. Doctors at Greater Niagara General Hospital were unable to reattach the recovered portion of her finger, but a specialist was to perform surgery Monday in an effort to minimize long-term effects of the bite.

Kansas City Star
February 19, 2001, Monday METROPOLITAN EDITION
Boy's ordeal after monkey bite leads to legislation on exotic pets

BILL GRAHAM

After a neighbor's rhesus macaque monkey jumped on Ethan Sickman's shoulder last July and bit his arm, the young boy was left terrified and bleeding.

For Larry and Lori Sickman of Platte County, what at first seemed like a traumatic but simple bite wound has led to fear of life-threatening diseases and a series of rabies shots for their son, now 8.

That's because no Missouri law gives authorities the power to impound exotic animals such as monkeys - and the monkey's owners declined to sacrifice its life so it could be tested as a rabies carrier. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," Larry Sickman said. "I wouldn't want to see anybody's children have to go through this treatment. Nothing's more heartbreaking than to see my child down because of these rabies shots."

The monkey's owners, Steve and Shelly Bowman, the Sickmans' next-door neighbors in a rural subdivision northwest of Parkville, have declined to comment.

The disease threat from monkeys is significant, said Kirk Suedmeyer, senior staff veterinarian at the Kansas City Zoo.

Studies show most macaques in captivity carry simian B virus, a form of herpes that is harmless to macaques but can be deadly to humans. Macaque monkeys, which can weigh up to 40 pounds, also can transmit other viruses, bacteria, toxic amoebas, hepatitis and tuberculosis.

The Bowmans did have a veterinarian test the monkey for simian B virus, and it was negative, according to Platte County Health Department records. Ethan also has been tested for the virus, which involves giving blood samples. So far, his tests have proved negative, too.

Yet the Sickmans and health officials had no recourse to require further testing of the monkey. Platte County's health codes - as do many community codes - deal only with bites by cats, dogs and ferrets.

After learning of the Sickmans' case, Missouri state Sen. Sidney Johnson introduced legislation to close the loophole by giving state health officials the legal authority to quarantine and test any animal that bites someone. Pet owners would be responsible for medical testing costs or damages as a result of a bite.

Kansas has a law requiring that any animal that bites a person be observed or tested for disease.

Johnson's bill recently was approved by the Public Health & Welfare Committee and will be considered by the full Senate. Larry and Lori Sickman testified in favor of the bill.

State health officials such as Howard Pue, Missouri public health veterinarian, support it, too.

Exotic pets such as monkeys are becoming more common, Pue noted. Missouri is a haven for exotic-animal auctions and sales. During Pue's two years as public health veterinarian, he has investigated at least three cases of monkey bites.

In the patchwork of city and county laws, some communities don't have ordinances to cover bites by dogs and cats, let alone exotic animals.

Kansas City does not allow exotic animals. But city codes provide the authority for testing any animal involved in a bite or attack. If an illegal exotic animal is found during a bite investigation, it is policy to euthanize it and test it for rabies.

Platte County's health and animal codes for rural areas authorize quarantines for dogs, cats and ferrets, but nothing else.

Johnson's bill is S.B. 0027.

A similar bill, H.B. 690 - sponsored by Rep. Meg Harding, a Democrat from the Northland - was introduced in the House of Representatives and referred to the Agriculture Committee. A hearing has not been scheduled.

Exotic pet ownership policy alters
www.stjoenews-press.com/Main.asp?SectionID=81&SubSectionID=272&ArticleID=17428
Feb. 19 2001
By SCOTT PUMMELL

New act signed by Holden will change past procedures

Eight-year-old Ethan Sickman had to suffer through a round of rabies shots and other vaccines after being bit by a rhesus monkey last summer.

That might not have been necessary if the monkey's owner would have allowed the animal to be tested. But the owner refused, and Ethan had to undergo shots and tests for three months.

Ethan's parents, Lori and Larry Sickman of Platte County, have spent the past year working to change state law so that the next person in Missouri bitten by an exotic animal will have more rights.

The culmination of the Sickmans' efforts came Thursday when Gov. Bob Holden signed into law the "Farmland Protection Act," an omnibus agriculture bill which included a provision with new restrictions for people who own exotic animals like rhesus monkeys.

Exotic pet owners will be required to turn the pets over for testing if they bite someone, something not previously required. It also gives authority to the state Department of Health to intervene and provide resources in these circumstances.

Another change will be making the pet owners - and not the person bitten - responsible for medical costs incurred because of any attack.

For the Sickmans, the medical costs ran into thousands of dollars.

"The next family that goes through this won't have to deal with a lot of these issues," Mrs. Sickman said. "That's why we worked so hard for this, to make sure that in the future no one else will have to go through as much as we did."

The Sickmans worked with state Sen. Sidney Johnson, D-Agency, to get the legislation passed.

Buffalo News (New York)
February 19, 2001, Monday, FINAL EDITION

FORT ERIE, Ont. -- A spider monkey bit the end off the finger of a 6-year-old girl Sunday afternoon at Steve's Petting Zoo on Stevensville Road.

The Niagara Regional Police said the Crystal Beach girl, accompanied by her father, had been petting one of two monkeys and then put her finger inside the cage. One of the monkeys bit one centimeter off the end of her right index finger.

The girl was taken by ambulance to Greater Niagara General Hospital, but physicians were unable to reattach the recovered portion of her finger.

http://www.vetcentric.com/magazine/magazineArticle.cfm?ARTICLEID=1896
The Monkey Business

January 02, 2001
Written by: Wes Alwan

Part I: Barrel of Monkeys, But Not of Laughs

Igor is terrified of Gibbons. In fact, Igor is so terrified of Gibbons that he becomes crazed and self-destructive at the mere site of them-tearing at his own arms until they bleed profusely. Oddly enough, Igor is not just afraid of Gibbons: he is a Gibbon.

Igor is one of many casualties of a booming U.S. pet trade in monkeys, a business that can be devastating to both animals and owners.

"Wild animals should not be pets," said Nicole Paquette, who is in charge of the Animal Protection Institute's campaign to ban private ownership of exotic pets, including non-human primates. "They deserve to be in their natural habitats-especially non-human primates, which come with numerous health and safety risks."

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Mature monkeys inevitably will challenge human owners for a higher position
in the family hierarchy. That often means biting, and because they have the
lowest position in the family hierarchy, children, one step above them,
often are the first to get bitten.
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The pet trade of primates has a typical cycle. Monkeys are sold as infants, when they are cute, docile, and similar enough to human infants that they wield a powerful emotional force over their owners. For about two years, these animals are raised as humans, and become completely socialized to their company. But at about two years of age, the animals become sexually mature, aggressive, and uncontrollable. Mature monkeys inevitably will challenge human owners for a higher position in the family hierarchy. That often means biting, and because they have the lowest position in the family hierarchy, children, one step above them, often are the first to get bitten.

"Kids will get bitten even for telling on a monkey," said Christine Camp-Scott, a breeder in the precarious position of both engaging in and discouraging the pet trade in monkeys. "The animals understand even subtle challenges to their behavior-if a child challenges a monkey, it gets bitten."

Once a child is bitten, the owner usually looks to get rid of the animal-often despite a strong emotional attachment.

Most owners, having paid as much as $6,000 for their pet, will resell it rather than give it to a sanctuary or zoo. A monkey may be passed around between naïve, would-be owners for some time. Because it is uncontrollable, the animal often is left neglected and isolated in small cage, until it becomes so obviously psychologically damaged that it cannot be resold or even given to a zoo.

"Zoos don't want washed-up pets," said Shirley McGreal, a chairperson for the International Primate Protection League and director of a League sanctuary in Summerville, South Carolina, where Igor currently is kept.

"They're too neurotic-and really, they're neither man nor beast, having adapted to human ways with considerable psychological stress."

Once they reach an animal sanctuary like hers, she added, these animals often never have seen another member of their own species.

Even monkeys like Igor-well-treated and taken care of by his human family-find themselves in a netherworld of mythological proportions when confronted with other members of their own species: not comfortable as a beast, but not capable of being civilized, these animals are robbed by the pet trade of something as valuable as it is intangible: their identity.

Supply: In the Jungle

In 1975, the import of monkeys for private ownership was banned in the United States, but selling and owning creatures bred in the United States generally remains legal-with state and county laws varying widely. And for the most part, the pet trade in non-human primates is highly unregulated. States may or may not required traders to be licensed, and certification by the United States Department of Agriculture is optional.

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Buyers are deceived by the docility and affectionate behavior of infant
monkeys-and are unpleasantly surprised when the animal matures.
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But even USDA certified traders are not required to test their animals for the herpes-B virus, which is especially prevalent in macaques, a popular species of monkey among buyers. Herpes-B is fatal to humans, and can be contracted not only from bites, but when monkeys shed it in saliva or genital secretions.

Reported cases of herpes-B infection are admittedly rare. According to the Center for Disease Control, there were less than 40 documented cases of herpes-B causing symptomatic infection in human beings between 1933 and 1994, and almost all occurred in laboratory workers.

Monkeys imported from the Third World are more likely to be infected with herpes-B than those bred on U.S. soil, where there is a higher likelihood that animals used for breeding have been tested. Consequently, there is a greater risk to owners that unknowingly receive an imported monkey. And there is no guarantee to buyers that a monkey isn't part of the $3 billion annual U.S. trade in illegal wildlife.

"There's been smuggling [of monkeys] from Mexico forever, and there always will be," said a source at the law enforcement division of the CDC. "There's no way to figure out how big it is, because you only know the ones you catch."

But beyond the possibility of infection, even some breeders agree with activists that monkeys simply do not make good pets. Buyers are deceived by the docility and affectionate behavior of infant monkeys-and are
unpleasantly surprised when the animal matures.

"A monkey doesn't remain like a child," said Ms. Camp-Scott, who keeps more than 100 monkeys in caged troops, as well as other animals ranging from zebras and large cats to a camel, at her home in Clewiston, Florida. "You have to accept the fact that one day, it's going to challenge your place in the family hierarchy."

Non-human primates have a strict social hierarchy. The dominant male of a macaque troop, for instance, is usually the first to eat at mealtimes, with males, a dominant female, and other females following in progression. Only the dominant male breeds at will, though he may let other males breed occasionally.

Monkeys treat their human family as the same sort of hierarchy. That means they will try to climb the social ladder, with tactics that naturally involve physical fights and biting. Human females will find it very
difficult to establish dominance with a male monkey. And children are in the most danger.

These rules apply even to the smallest and seemingly most innocuous of non-human primates. "Even the smaller ones like marmosets, which are less than half a pound, have razor sharp teeth," Ms. Camp-Scott said.

Ms. Camp-Scott claims that she doesn't sell to people with children, and tries to discourage buyers as much as possible with some of the horror stories of monkey ownership. She notes one case in which a woman kept a monkey in a dirty, two-foot cage in an RV without air conditioning during a Texas summer.

Ms. Camp-Scott discovered the situation and reported it to the USDA, which then gave the owner 30 days to correct the conditions. Instead, she sold her monkey at an auction. Within hours of getting to its new home, the animal bit off and swallowed the fingers of a child, and was subsequently euthanized.

Many stories of monkey attacks recently have been reported in the media. A little over a week ago, a Chicago woman was found bleeding to death by her husband after she let her seven year-old, 25-pound macaque out of its cage to "play." Still in the hospital, the woman received over a hundred stitches, and will require plastic surgery.

The incident occurred three days before the Illinois legislature defeated a law proposing a ban on the private ownership of non-human primates, among other exotic pets.

But even in more sanguine cases, after about two years of raising monkeys, owners often end up with animals they simply can't control, and have to give up.

"Monkeys don't make good pets," said Ms. Camp-Scott, who admits she feels like a hypocrite for selling infant monkeys in order to support her numerous caged animals. "For most people, getting a monkey is a very big, expensive, and heart-breaking mistake."

Part II: The Back Yard of Doctor Moreaux

Supply: Many Unhappy Returns

Some evenings a TV lies near the cage, blaring and flickering through a trash bag that protects it from pounding wind and rain. For Frankie, one of more than one hundred monkeys that Ms. Camp-Scott keeps at her home, the noise and colors are a relief.

In the absence of social interaction, Frankie had taken to grooming himself-grooming is a major form of social expression for monkeys. But grooming in isolation quickly became unfulfilling for the monkey, and it escalated to self-mutilation.

It seems that for Frankie, the pain was better than no stimulation at all. Now it takes the TV blaring all day to keep Frankie occupied enough that he doesn't hurt himself. After more than a year, Frankie has improved remarkably, but he still isn't ready to be caged with other animals of his own kind.

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"Really, I regret every monkey I put into the pet trade," Ms. Camp-Scott
said.
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Frankie started out at an amusement park called the Jungle Gym, in Miami. After the facility decided to get rid of its male monkeys because of their aggressiveness, Frankie was without a home.

Frankie was passed between numerous owners-who found, like many owners, that grown monkeys are uncontrollable. Instead of giving such creatures to a zoo or sanctuary, owners often try to get their money back by selling the creature to another unsuspecting buyer. In the meantime, the animal is left in its cage-often a small cage, since cages are expensive-and usually without stimulation.

Like many monkeys, Frankie was so psychologically damaged by that process and the abuse of owners that he finally ended up with an owner who couldn't find a buyer for him.

In 1999, Ms. Camp-Scott bought Frankie in his terrible condition, when no one else would take him. When she saw him, it didn't take long for her to realize that Frankie had passed through her hands before-about four years earlier, and in much better condition.

"I felt really guilty about Frankie," said Ms. Camp-Scott. "Really, I regret every monkey I put into the pet trade."

Nevertheless, she is still involved in selling infant monkeys to raise money that will give her numerous other animals the medical attention and food they need. Ms. Camp-Scott claims she will take back any animal she has sold, although she won't buy them back.

"A lot of people are dead set on getting a monkey-if they have to do it, I'd rather they do it from me, where they can give it back," she added, admitting that she feels like a "hypocrite."

Because pet monkeys have adapted to living with human beings, and prefer human company, socializing neurotic monkeys to live with other members of their own species is not easy.

"When they first come here, a lot have never even seen another monkey, and it scares the heck out of them," Ms. Camp-Scott said.

It can take a year of gradual exposure to its own species to introduce even a monkey that has been well treated by its human owners into a troop of other animals. Cases like Frankie's are even harder.

Ms. Camp-Scott notes that the worst part of being involved in the trade is the taking of an infant from its mother, although she claims she tries to take infants primarily from females that have a history of negligence to their offspring.

"The mother mourns, screams, will fight to the death for her infant, and often has to be tranquilized-in fact, the whole troop will fight," Ms. Camp-Scott said, noting that many traders will lie to buyers about the trauma caused by taking an infant. "The mother, as well as the whole troop will be depressed for months afterwards, and if they see the person who took [the infant]-no matter how much time has passed-they remember, and show their hatred."

Ms. Camp-Scott leaves the task of taking infants to her husband and another handler; her husband is hated by her caged monkeys, and many troops will huddle around an infant to guard it when they see him.

She recalls one case of a female monkey that kept dropping to the ground on its belly whenever her husband went near its cage. Thinking the behavior unusual, she investigated, and found out that the female had an infant, and was falling on top of it to hide it. Ms Camp-Scott hadn't even known of the animal's pregnancy.

Sellers will lie about the heartbreak caused by the pet trade in non-human primates, Ms. Camp-Scott said. She thinks buyers ought to know the truth.

Demand: Bringing Home Monkey

For all the problems and cruelties surrounding the private ownership of monkeys, why is owning one so alluring to many buyers?

According to Ms. Camp-Scott, monkeys are especially popular among couples who can't have children. She notes that adopting human infants is both difficult and expensive. "There is a very long waiting list for infant babies," Ms. Camp-Scott said.

"Monkeys return the kind of love that you get from no other animal-it is the closest thing to getting a newborn infant human child there is," she added. "It's unbelievable-the love that you have, the bonding process is about the same, and for a couple of years it is just like raising a human child."

Cheryl Hochstatler, a trader who also works at a car dealership in Bremen, Indiana, agrees.

"I couldn't live without them, " Ms. Hochstatler said. "They are so extremely intelligent, affectionate, loving, and playful."

Ms. Hochstatler, like Ms. Camp-Scott, tries to ward off buyers with warnings about the perils of ownership, and considers herself a responsible seller-providing health certificates, a requirement for United States
Department of Agriculture certified sellers, as well as disease test results.

Despite the warnings, both sellers acknowledge that the demand for non-human primate pets far outstrips the supply. Ms. Camp-Scott has a waiting list of over 300.

But the ultimate result of that demand is a host of psychologically damaged monkeys that end up in sanctuaries and facilities like Ms. Camp-Scott's-caught in a conflict between their social identification with human beings and the instinctual behavior of their own species.

"We consider the pet trade extremely abusive," said Shirley McGreal, chairperson for the International Primate Protection League, and director of a League sanctuary in Summerville, South Carolina. "It is not possible for a nice and compassionate person to be involved in this trade, which starts with an act of the most vicious cruelty: the kidnapping of the baby from the mother."

Whatever the ethics, almost everyone seems to agree with the general principle that monkeys shouldn't be pets-even when they succumb to their inclination to act against that advice.

The allure remains understandable: monkeys are a fascinating mix of the human and the wild. Our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, monkeys are often remarkably human in their behaviors, yet are not capable of being domesticated even to the least standards of an unruly housecat.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the warnings, both sellers acknowledge that the demand for non-human
primate pets far outstrips the supply. Ms. Camp-Scott has a waiting list of
over 300.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the end, one doesn't have to search far for examples of our potent human identification with these animals, and what it says about us. Most of us were made in high school to read The Monkey's Paw, a story that effectively uses the symbol of the monkey in its analysis of human desire. Appropriately, the story is about the dangers of getting what we wish for: it is about getting caught-and hurt-in the machinery of our own desires.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
December 31, 2000, Sunday, CITY EDITION

Those monkeys need a spanking.

Just north of Jarratt, three monkeys pelted cars on Interstate 95 with bananas and crab apples before running across the highway and disappearing into the woods.

Published Sunday, December 10, 2000
http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=PET10&date=10-Dec-2000

Pet talk: Looking for a pet? Expert says you don't want to monkey around
Mitzi Perdue / Scripps Howard News Service

Infant monkeys are adorable and in many ways like human babies. But if you ever have the urge to buy one for a pet, April Truitt has some advice for you:

Don't.

Truitt is the founder of the Primate Rescue Center (PRC) and knows why buying a monkey would be a really bad idea.

Why would anyone want a pet monkey?

The answer is that, in some circles, at least, a monkey is a status symbol. And people who long for children or who are going through empty-nest syndrome sometimes feel that a baby monkey could fill the gap.

The result is that hundreds of people in this country pay anywhere from $3,000 for a capuchin monkey to $40,000 for a female chimpanzee. It's legal and you can find infant monkeys for sale on the Internet.

However, if you do buy one of these animals it's just about guaranteed that you'll regret it. As Truitt says, "the media portray them as substitute humans, but what you don't see is that these animals are capable of inflicting horrendous damage."

Monkeys' capacity for doing "horrendous damage" is hard-wired into them. It's the result of the monkey's hierarchical nature.

When the monkey is an infant and dependent, it accepts a submissive role in the hierarchy. But as a monkey matures, it has an overwhelming instinct to climb to the top of the social group. In a human family, the monkey is apt to challenge and dominate the children first, because they're the weakest. The monkey's next target is the woman and, finally, the man.

Even a capuchin monkey, one that will never weigh more than 20 pounds, can seriously injure a 200-pound man. "By the time a capuchin is five years old," said Truitt, "he has figured out that he has the power and the artillery to injure his human captor."

The power and artillery that Truitt is referring to are the animal's teeth and nails. To see how this works in practice, take the case of Boog, a 10-year-old spider monkey who now lives at the PRC.

His former owner, a woman, bought Boog as an infant, thinking he would be a darling pet. However, at age 6, Boog decided one day that he absolutely didn't want to return to his cage. He went after the woman with his inch-long canines and weaponlike fingernails, plus his prehensile tail. The woman suffered severe gashes.

What Boog did was fairly typical. Generally by the time the PRC gets a call, a monkey has inflicted injury more than once. The injuries happen because the animals challenge their social hierarchy just as they would in the wild.

One of the PRC's missions is to educate people so they won't enter into relationships that are going to end badly.

-- Melissa D. Boyd

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
December 08, 2000, Friday CITY EDITION

Pet monkey quarantined, stays at home
Ken Raymond, Staff Writer

Winston the monkey survived Monday's shenanigans, but now he faces house arrest.

The Capuchin monkey, who can usually be found at the office of an Oklahoma City public relations firm, became a source of conflict after he bit a boy during a shopping trip to a northwest Oklahoma City Home Depot, said Dave Murdock, city animal control manager. Winston "was with a sitter or nanny, I guess they call it, and she took him with her to Home Depot," Murdock said. "Of course, kids see a monkey, and everybody wants to touch it."

The monkey latched onto the leg of a 13- or 14-year-old boy and began biting, Murdock said.

"His canines had been removed, so he punctured the skin, but it wasn't deep," he said.

The boy's mother took him to a hospital for treatment of the wound, and the hospital - as required by law - notified animal control. That was when the situation got wild.

Winston's owner, Mary Myrick, protested a search warrant that allowed city officials to take Winston into custody for confinement in an animal shelter. During the ensuing melee, an animal control officer was assaulted and a woman arrested, police said.

Myrick reached an agreement with animal control workers once Winston had been brought to the shelter, Murdock said.

"We originally brought him here, and then we agreed to let him go home with the possibility of spot checks," he said.

Winston will be kept in quarantine at home for 30 days. After that, he will be examined by a veterinarian. Unless signs of disease are present, the monkey will be given a clean bill of health and allowed to return to work.

Monkeying Around - Office melee erupts when police try to take away monkey

http://www.foxnews.com/etcetera/120800/monkey.sml

Friday, December 8, 2000

OKLAHOMA CITY - The monkey went peacefully. It was the humans who went ape.

Friends of a 9-pound Capuchin monkey got into a fur fight Monday when city animal control officers arrived at an office with a warrant to take 5-year-old Winston into custody.

Workers at Public Strategies, a public-relations firm, yelled, screamed and cried. One employee bumped an officer with her chest and pinned him against the transport truck, police said.

"You don't understand," Mary Myrick, who owns the firm and the monkey, told police. "This monkey had a nanny, for God's sake."

The problem began when Myrick took Winston with her to a Home Depot store last Saturday. Some people came up and asked to pet Winston, and did so without any trouble, Myrick said.

When the group was about to leave, Winston "nipped" a teenager on the back of the leg, she said. Myrick said the bite wasn't serious, although animal control officers said it broke the skin.

During Monday's altercation, officers told Myrick that Winston would not be harmed and that she could stay with him at the shelter until his release.

Winston was taken to the shelter and tested, police said. Test results and additional information about the victim were not available.

Time
December 4, 2000

Life Along the Chimps Elysees; The French loved the magots because they were cute. Then the apes grew up

BY: Bruce Crumley/Paris

For the past five years, thousands of endangered baby monkeys have been smuggled from North Africa into France for families dying to own the chic pet of the moment. But as the Barbary monkey, which the French call magot, grows, so do its fangs, claws and temper. As a result, some of these simians, like other fads, have been abandoned--tied to trees in the park, left there for nature to take her course. Nature, however, like fashion, can take unexpected turns. Now the French are worried that their latest bout of petty cruelty may have a bestial denouement.

"It's like the movie Gremlins," says Marie-Claude Bomsel, a veterinary expert at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. "These little creatures are adorable and docile while babies but become uncontrollable and violent in adulthood. Deprived of their natural socialization and incapable of adapting to human life, these monkeys become highly stressed, aggressive sociopaths that owners can't handle." The fear is that, left in parks and forests, the monkeys may turn on innocent humans taking walks in the woods. If that happens, ultimate fighting would pale in comparison. Says Bomsel: "These monkeys are very aggressive, and being stronger than humans, will inflict serious injury by biting and clawing." The damage may be especially excruciating for males of the human species. "Mature male magots consider men rivals, and will target sexual organs during attacks. That could be bad--very messy."

For some owners, the adult magots' capacity for violence has only enhanced their appeal. The monkey now rivals pit bulls and Rottweilers as a favorite accessory in French public-housing projects.

But most of the French are not amused, and are watching with alarm every fresh report of monkeys abandoned in public spaces. This month, police captured an escaped magot in a Paris-area park, less than a month after a pair of free-roaming magots were captured in a park in Lyons. Earlier, an adult magot was found in Paris' Bois de Vincennes tethered to a tree. News of the Paris finding sparked a flurry of calls to park officials reporting herds of magots roaming among treetops--sightings that have yet to be confirmed.

What worries authorities is that the French magot population may be as high as several hundred thousand. "This is an endangered species protected by international accords," says Serge Belais, president of France's Society for the Protection of Animals. "And neither North African or French customs officials seem too concerned." Baby magots can fetch up to $ 90 apiece in Africa--and sell for $ 1,200 in France. But they are susceptible to illness and often die in captivity. Their bites can transmit such diseases as TB and hepatitis. "People are risking their lives by adopting these creatures," says Belais, "and hastening the magot's disappearance from the planet."

Judge Anne Vosgien, president of a Paris-based animal-protection association, says it's time to get tough on the trade in all sorts of exotic pets. "We've got to crack down on people with animals that are known to be uncontrollable and dangerous. We don't care if it's a monkey, pit bull, cobra or hamster--we want tougher and better-enforced laws making pet owners responsible for their animals."

Though the humane society and police have removed scores of adult magots from traumatized households, French zoos and animal refuges have begun refusing requests to assume care of unwanted monkeys. Previously, such easy outs for owners, says Belais, only encouraged the traffic in baby magots. Zoos, meanwhile, do not want to expose their simian populations to belligerent and often diseased domestic magots. "This is a slow massacre that only customs authorities can stop," Belais laments.

Sadly, the high-profile monkey problem may only be growing. Large numbers of baby magots were purchased by trendy Parisians just before the adult magot problems made headlines. If the monkey population explodes as feared--and fad-fatigued owners abandon their charges in greater numbers--men who plan to visit France's parks may want to don protective gear before they wander too far into the woods.

LOOKING FOR IDEAL PET? MONKEY SEE; DON'T DO
Ann Landers
November 18, 2000

Dear Ann Landers: You have printed several letters about pet monkeys. I am sending you a brochure from the Simian Society of America in Jacksonville, Ill., that explains the difficulties in owning a monkey.

Here is some information from their brochure:

A monkey is a wild animal. Their infant friendliness fades as soon as they reach adulthood. They then become aggressive and can attack at the slightest provocation. Home-rearing an infant primate does not stop or alter this behavior.

You must watch your monkey every second. Even the smallest squirrel monkey can open a cupboard. Larger monkeys can open refrigerator doors, turn on faucets, rip through window screens, unlock outside doors, turn over chairs, tables and TVs. Toxic substances and medicines must be kept under lock and key.

Monkeys are highly excitable animals and will relieve themselves whenever and wherever they are upset. Though you may be somewhat successful diapering or toilet-training a young monkey, once the monkey reaches maturity, that training is forgotten or ignored.

If you are contemplating getting a monkey, you should contact the appropriate regulatory agencies (Fish and Game, Animal Control, Health Department) to learn of restrictions concerning these primates. Some cities and states prohibit keeping monkeys, while others require special permits.

Don't wait until you have acquired a monkey to find out it's against the law in your area.

Be aware that monkeys are expensive. They cannot live on peanuts and bananas alone. All primates require a well-balanced diet, including fresh vegetables, fruits, vitamins and live insects.

All monkeys bite. Punishment is usually taken as a threat and can result in serious consequences. Spaying or neutering your monkey will have little effect on curbing aggression. You must keep your primate away from strangers, as well as friends of your children, neighbors and relatives.

You should also invest in liability insurance and make sure you have some type of comprehensive health insurance for you and your family.

Monkeys need lots of space. Primates become depressed, even insane, if they don't get enough mental and physical stimulation. Tire swings, climbing ropes and toys must be replaced constantly as the monkey grows bored. The monkey's environment must be warm, dry and free from drafts.

They like to sunbathe for short periods of time, and must be provided with both indoor and outdoor caging with shade.

The average, well-tended captive primate lives for 20-40 years. Monkeys don't adapt well to new situations, such as the addition of a spouse or child.

What will happen to your monkey when you go away to college, get a job in another area or join the military? Keep in mind that your responsibility to your pet continues when you change your lifestyle.

I hope this information will make you think twice before seriously considering a monkey as a pet.

Joe in California

Windsor Star
November 17, 2000 Friday Final Edition

Don't monkey around with these pets; Primate Rescue Center says you'll regret having this animal in home

BY: Mitzi Perdue, Scripps Howard Service

Infant monkeys are adorable and in many ways like human babies. Still, if you ever have the urge to buy one for a pet, April Truitt has some important advice for you:

Don't.

Truitt is the founder of the Primate Rescue Center (PRC) and knows why buying a pet monkey would be a seriously bad idea. Before we get to her reasons, though, why would anyone want a pet monkey? The answer is that, in some circles, at least, a pet monkey is a status symbol. And people who long for children or who are going through empty-nest syndrome sometimes feel that a baby monkey could fill the gap.

The result is that hundreds of people in the United States pay anywhere from $3,000 US for a capuchin monkey to $40,000 for a female chimpanzee. It's legal to do it and you can find infant monkeys for sale on the Internet.

However, if you do buy one of these animals, it's just about guaranteed that you'll regret it. As Truitt says, "The media portrays them as substitute humans, but what you don't see is that these animals are capable of inflicting horrendous damage."

If you're not familiar with the innate drives of monkeys, it may surprise you to know that their capacity for doing "horrendous damage" is hard-wired into them. It's the result of the monkey's hierarchical nature.

When the monkey is an infant and dependent, it accepts a submissive role in the hierarchy. But as a monkey matures, it has an overwhelming instinct to wrest its way to the top of the social group. In a human family, the monkey is apt to challenge and dominate the children first, since they're the weakest. The monkey's next target is the wife and, finally, the husband.

Seriously injure 200-pound man

Even a capuchin monkey, one that will never weigh more than 20 pounds, can seriously injure a 200-pound man. "By the time a capuchin is five years old," says Truitt, "he has figured out that he has the power and the artillery to injure his human captor."

The power and artillery that Truitt is referring to are the animal's teeth and nails. To see how this works in practice, take the case of Boog, a 10-year-old spider monkey who now lives at the PRC.

His former owner, a woman, bought Boog as an infant, thinking he would be a darling pet. However, at age six, Boog decided one day that he didn't want to return to his cage. He went after the woman with his inch-long razor-sharp canines and weaponlike fingernails, plus his prehensile tail.

The woman suffered multiple severe gashes.

What Boog did was fairly typical. Generally by the time the PRC gets a call, a monkey has inflicted injury more than once. The injuries happen because the animals challenge their social hierarchy just as they would in the wild.

One of the PRC's missions is to try to educate people so they won't enter into a relationship with monkeys that's going to end badly for both. The PRC also:

* Provides a sanctuary or referral to appropriate facilities.

* Works to end the illegal trade in primates both in the United States and abroad.

* Educates the public about the plight of primates caught in the breeder/dealer cycle.

* Assists researchers and zoo personnel in finding appropriate placement for their surplus primates.

TULSA WORLD
November 6, 2000

Exotics - They're here (even in your neighbor's back yard), but do they belong?
Making pet sounds: for and against

TIM HOOVER

After playing with the frisky and cuddly feline for a just a few hours, Linda Griffis was sold.

The baby mountain lion was going to be her pet.

So the Verdigris woman bought the cub -- who weighed not much more than 30 pounds -- for $ 300 from a friend just before Valentine's Day.

"I was ready for some love and affection, and he was too," Griffis said. Two years later, Pouncer weighs more than 140 pounds and lives in a 24-by-30-foot wrought-iron pen in Griffis' back yard. He is declawed and is fed a special diet of cow bone, hide and flesh, along with pet vitamins that are crushed into his food several times a day.

"He was a lot different than what I expected," Griffis said. "I expected meanness, but he is so sweet."

Griffis is one of dozens of Oklahomans who own large cats or other exotic animals such as bears, monkeys, wolves, alligators and snakes as pets. Nationwide, in what seems to be a growing trend, there are thousands of owners who keep such normally wild animals in back yards and even in their homes.

At the same time, there are increasing concerns among animal rights organizations and wildlife officials about the ethics and humaneness of keeping such animals as pets.

And in light of highly publicized incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to people -- especially where large cats are involved -- there also are worries about public safety.

"I wouldn't recommend any of these animals as pets," said Nicole Paquette, government affairs specialist with the Animal Protection Institute, a nonprofit organization that opposes the ownership of exotic animals as pets.

"They don't adjust well to a captive environment. People are misguided thinking they can take care of them."

Paquette points to several deaths involving exotic animals, including one in 1997 at an animal refuge near Oklahoma City in which a leopard killed a woman and then escaped from its cage. Oklahoma County sheriff's deputies shot the animal to death after a massive search involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

Beyond the dangers of biting and clawing from such animals, there are risks of disease, Paquette says.

As many as 90 percent of all reptiles carry salmonella bacteria, and there have been numerous examples of children contracting serious salmonella illnesses from contact with family pets, the Animal Protection Institute says.

Many monkeys carry the herpes B virus, among other diseases, and have been known to transmit it to humans through bites and secretion of bodily fluids.

Despite these risks, there is little regulation of the ownership of exotic animals.

The result, Paquette says, is that many exotic animals are owned by people with little or no knowledge of their diets, health needs or behavior. The animals become big and difficult to care for, and owners often give them to animal sanctuaries.

Sometimes, the animals are starved or forced to live in filthy conditions until authorities rescue them -- assuming that they survive.

Too often, the animals escape or get out of control and hurt humans, Paquette said.

Dr. Kristy Bradley, a veterinarian and epidemiologist with the Oklahoma Department of Health, agrees with the need for more regulation.

"In my opinion, it is not a well-regulated area," she said.

The Health Department investigates incidents in which people are attacked by exotic animals ranging from large cats to bears. The department has had to quarantine animals after attacks to determine whether they had rabies.

Bradley remembers one recent case in Osage County where a family was terrorized by a neighbor's pet monkey. The animal frequently escaped from its cage, urinated on playground equipment and bared its teeth at children, she said.

"These (exotic) animals are inherently wild, and their behavior is unpredictable," she said. "Although they may be calm with their owners, others are at risk."

Bradley favors higher license fees to own the animals, higher standards for their caging and care and mandatory education for would-be owners. She also says owners of exotic animals should be required to carry liability insurance.

"I think these things would be a deterrent to impulse ownership of these animals," she said, adding that such measures would redirect possession of exotic animals to only experienced and responsible owners.

In the meantime, more exotic animals are finding their ways into the back yards of ordinary people like Griffis. The Verdigris woman admits that she is careful around her mountain lion, but she says he's well-behaved.

Once, she said, she took Pouncer to the veterinarian and walked him on a harness into the waiting room where owners of dogs and cats were waiting their turns to see the doctor.

"He just walked right in and hopped up on a chair and sat down beside me and just purred," Griffis recalled, adding, "A few people backed up and had to leave."

Aside from the occasional visit to the vet, though, Pouncer never leaves his cage, she said.

"Basically, he doesn't want out," Griffis said. "Life's too good."

Tulsa World (Oklahoma)
September 29, 2000
Monkey is 'jailed' at shelter after run-in with child

A monkey was taken to the city animal shelter Thursday after injuring a child at a motel.

The monkey, whose name is Barney, either bit or scratched a 4-year-old girl's cheek at the Western Capri Motel, 5320 W. Skelly Drive, Tulsa County Sheriff's Capt. Tim Albin said.

The monkey's owner was staying in a room next to the one in which the girl was staying, but no more details about how the incident occurred were available.

Sheriff's officials became aware of the incident when the girl was taken to a Tulsa hospital for treatment of the injury.

Albin said Barney is in the city animal shelter awaiting examination by state Health Department officials, as is required in cases involving exotic animals.

Briefs - 09/25/00
This article appeared in the Maryville Times-Monday
September 25.
Maryville,TN.

Briefs
Monday, September 25, 2000
Girl bitten by Japanese monkey

Blount Memorial Hospital filed an animal control complaint at 5 p.m. Friday concerning a brown Macaque monkey, owned by Joe Helton, Rocky Branch Road, Walland.

According to a report filed with the Maryville Police Department, the monkey bit Brandi Hyde, Helton's step-daughter, leaving a small red mark on her right arm.

The owner said the monkey was current on all its shots.

Macaque monkies, native to Japan, can weigh from eight to 35 pounds depending on gender and species. They are also sometimes referred to as "snow monkies."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
September 17, 2000 Sunday ZONED EDITION

Exotic animals ordinance in works; Dover Town Board asks its attorney to draft regulation after monkey attacks two people in Kansasville

LUKE KLINK Special to the Journal Sentinel

Dover -- The Dover Town Board asked its attorney last week to draft an ordinance regulating the keeping of exotic animals.

The move comes after an incident last month when a Japanese macaque monkey named Ronnie broke through the rotted wall of a downtown Kansasville home and attacked a neighbor and postal carrier. The attack victims were treated at a hospital for bite wounds. The monkey, a pet owned by Jacquelyn Thacker for the last eight years, was put to death.

Dover Supervisor Theodore Dremel said the attorney, Peter Ludwig, will draft the ordinance, which will be patterned after similar ordinances in neighboring communities.

Dremel said the board did not want to prevent town residents from keeping more docile exotic animals.

"There are so many exceptions that have to be filtered out on what exotic animals should be included and which should not," he said.

Some town residents keep llamas, kangaroos and an African breed of cattle, Dremel said.

The exotic animal ordinance could be ready for discussion by the Oct. 9 Town Board meeting.

Wildlife News -- August 28, 2000, Vol. 48 No. 36
Pet Monkeys Can't Be Taken To Public Places
The Arizona Game and Fish Department wants to remind owners of non-human primates, such as monkeys, that the law has changed and they cannot take their primate pets into public places.
"Non-human primates can carry a lot of different diseases, many of which can be readily transmitted to humans. Some of these diseases are extremely serious," said Research Branch Chief Jim deVos.
DeVos said the Game and Fish Commission Rule regarding non-human primates allows those who already have such animals to keep them, but they are prohibited from taking the animals into public places. However, they are allowed to take the animals to veterinarians for treatment.
Game and Fish officials had originally considered a ban on private individuals owning primates. The department examined the issue in depth, and even conducted focus groups. "We arrived at a more moderate approach, which was adopted by the Game and Fish Commission last December. The whole idea is to protect the public, yet allow those who already own such animals to keep them," deVos said.
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
August 14, 2000, Monday, BC cycle

Pet chimp gets loose, bites neighbors, damages property

The same chimpanzee that two years ago wrecked a U.S. Postal Service truck has struck again.

Herbie got loose after a sitter opened the wrong door of his cage and was on the run for more than three hours Saturday. Herbie stayed near his home while most neighbors stayed inside out of fear, said Raleigh County Sheriff's Deputy M.A. McCray.

Police told residents to keep their lights off. "If he saw a light on, he would apparently go to the house and want to go in," McCray said.

The chimp jumped on one vehicle and tore screens out of one resident's home, the deputy said.

While loose Herbie bit Ronald McClung, 18, in the palm of his hand.

Herbie also bit Mike Cochran, a neighbor who had tried to restrain the 5-foot, 150-pound creature.

Even though Cochran had played with Herbie before, "It jumped on him, knocked him down and bit his finger. He had some injuries to his side, too," McCray said.

Herbie's roommate, Sonny, never made it out of the large cage they share in the home of Fred Wriston, who has owned Herbie for 13 years.

A Beckley police officer obtained a tranquilizer from a veterinarian and a Wriston family member got close enough to inject it. Herbie went to sleep and was carried home.

In June 1998, Herbie tried to take the driver's seat of a postal truck. After escaping from his cage, Herbie ran Arthur Warden of Beckley out of the truck, causing the truck to slam into a parked vehicle. The chimp, who jumped from the truck before the accident, started after Warden, getting into a grab-each-other match until Wriston restrained his pet.

Wriston said at the time he believed Herbie tried to take the mail truck because he was once featured in a commercial, driving.

Herbie cooks, cleans, mops and hammers, and relatives say he's just as intelligent as a human.

Owner Kills Infamous Biting Monkey
8/8/00
SAN ANGELO, TX

Ted E. Bear, a monkey that drew national attention after biting a San Angelo man's neck in January 1998, was recently shot and killed after biting one of his owners.

An Animal Shelter official indicated the Capuchin monkey's body was brought to the shelter Friday and his head was shipped to a laboratory in Austin, where his brain will undergo rabies testing.

Officials should know test results within the next few days.

Ted E. Bear lived with Russell and Judy Woods in Carlsbad, and neither would comment Monday.

It was unclear which of the Woodses was attacked last week, but a bite report at the Animal Shelter said the monkey "went crazy" and bit his owner, who in turn shot the monkey seven or eight times.

The report also indicated the individual sought medical attention for the bites before taking the monkey's body to the animal shelter.

The monkey made national headlines two years ago after a biting incident resulted in a debate over whether city officials should execute him so his brain could be tested for rabies.

State District Judge Barbara Walther issued an injunction preventing the monkey's death, and Eric Hernandez, the 19-year-old bite victim, agreed to take rabies prevention shots.

In the meantime, Judy Woods appeared on NBC's "Leeza" show in a program themed "Headline Grabbing Animals."

But city law doesn't allow exotic animals - such as monkeys - within the city limits, and a city marshal escorted the monkey to San Angelo's city limits about a month after the bite incident.

The Woodses sold their San Angelo home and moved beyond the city limits in order to keep Ted E. Bear. Judy Woods - who suffered a neck injury years ago - originally got the monkey to assist her with tasks like opening bottles and turning on faucets.

The Miami Herald
August 5, 2000 Saturday BROWARD EDITION

MONKEY BITE VICTIM HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL

A 15-year-old girl who was attacked by a monkey was released from the hospital Friday.

Dorothy Colosimo, of Davie, and friend Candace Garwood, 19, were standing outside Garwood's home at 17221 SW 65th Ct., in Southwest Ranches, when Garwood's mother's pet monkey, Mikey, attacked them, fire rescue officials said. Colosimo was bitten on her arm, back and left ear.

The girls ran to a car for safety where they called 911.

When neighbors came out, the monkey ran back to the house.

Garwood, who had bites to her arms and face, refused to go to the hospital. Colosimo was treated at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines for several bites. She was released Friday.

Garwood did not want to talk about the incident Friday but a friend who answered her phone said she was in a lot of pain but doing well.

Residents are allowed to have monkeys as pets but they must have a state permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Monkey attacks man, letter carrier
Charges not likely for macaque's owner, Racine official says

By Dave Cole
Special to the Journal Sentinel, Last Updated: Aug. 5, 2000

Town of Dover - A woman whose pet monkey got loose and then attacked and bit a neighbor and a letter carrier probably won't face charges, a Racine County Sheriff's Department spokesman said Wednesday.

And Jacquelyn Thacker, 45, won't have to worry about being sued by at least one of the victims, even though the man had to run for his life.

"She's a good, hard worker, and I feel sorry for her," George Mutter, 73, said Wednesday of the monkey's owner. "She apologized that the thing got away."

The monkey's rampage began Tuesday morning when it broke through some rotten boards on Thacker's rented property in the community of Kansasville and escaped, according to sheriff's Lt. Jim Scherff.

Mutter was in the backyard of his home when the monkey, a Japanese macaque named Ronnie, suddenly appeared. And he was anything but playful.

"The thing came over the top of my car and off the hood," Mutter said. "It grabbed me around the waist, and I struggled to get away from it. It slid down my waist and started biting me."

Mutter said he suffered four bite wounds to his left leg before escaping by running into his home.

Moments later, the monkey attacked a U.S. Postal Service employee delivering mail from her truck, Scherff said.

The monkey reached up and bit Renee DeGroot's hand, Scherff said.

DeGroot then drove across the street to get help, Scherff said. But things went from bad to worse when the animal attacked again, and this time leaped into the truck, he said.

DeGroot was able to get the monkey out of the truck and the animal ran off, Scherff said.

With the help of Thacker, Ronnie eventually was captured, and with her consent he was euthanized, Scherff said. Thacker had the monkey as a pet for eight years, he said.

Both victims now face the possibility of having been infected by a virus macaque monkeys have been known to carry, according to Jan Rafert, curator of the primate and small mammals exhibit at the Milwaukee County Zoo. The disease can be fatal if left untreated, Rafert said.

Rafert, consulted by the hospitals that treated the victims Tuesday for their wounds, said pending test results should determine whether DeGroot and Mutter need treatment.

Normally, macaque monkeys aren't aggressive, Rafert said. In this case, the nimal probably attacked after becoming frightened by his new surroundings, he said.

A lover of exotic animals, Thacker also has a half-breed wolf penned in her backyard, Scherff said. There are no state or local laws against the possession of such animals, he said.

And a town ordinance against allowing animals to run loose probably would not apply in this situation, Scherff said.

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
August 4, 2000, Friday, Broward Metro EDITION

PET MONKEY ATTACKS SOUTHWEST RANCHES TEENS

SHANNON O'BOYE ; Staff Writer

Monkeys may be cute, but sometimes they can be nasty.

Just ask Candice Garwood, 19, and Dorothy Colosimo, 15, who had a hairy encounter Thursday night with a 4-foot furry monkey who jumped into the teenagers' car and left them bloodied and bruised.

The girls were leaving Garwood's Southwest Ranches home about 7:30 p.m. when the monkey followed them out of the house, hopped into the car and got violent, fire officials said. Garwood's mother, Barbara, who is out of town on vacation, keeps the Sumerian monkey as a pet.

The monkey bit and scratched the girls in the face and arms before they could shoo it out of the car. The girls rolled up the windows, locked the doors and sat in the car in the driveway for more than an hour, afraid the animal would attack if they ventured out.

"The monkey was banging on the windows and roof, tormenting them," said Broward County Fire-Rescue spokesman Todd LeDuc.

Finally, Colosimo called her mother, who called 911.

When Broward firefighters arrived, they found the tall, thin monkey on the car's hood.

"We were chirping the siren and the air horn and flashing our lights," said Capt. John Frailey. "We thought we'd scare it and it would run away, but it just looked at us."

The firefighters stayed 50 feet away from the beast until a neighbor, who was friendly with the monkey, came over with gloves and approached the car. Upon seeing the man, the monkey dashed into the house. When firefighters left, Broward sheriff's deputies were trying to get the animal back into its cage.

Colosimo, of Davie, was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital West. She was "bitten all over" and needed stitches, Frailey said. Garwood, who had scratches on her forehead and arm, planned to drive herself to the hospital.

Garwood told authorities that the pet is up-to-date on its shots. She knows because the monkey attacked her mother six months ago.

Shannon O'Boye can be reached at soboye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4597.

Monkey in the Doghouse
By David Snyder, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , July 20, 2000

In the photograph on Steven and Kimberly Ritterspach's kitchen counter, Jamie looks like a perfect angel. He is reclining, almost asleep, his face blissfully calm.

This is the way the Ritterspachs remember their 2-year-old Bonnet macaque, as a loving and loved member of their family. A monkey, yes. But a monkey who ate at the family table, took showers and grabbed his own food from the refrigerator.

A son, almost.

The police reports and the quarter-inch-thick file at the Anne Arundel County Animal Control Division recall a somewhat different monkey. Seven bite reports in 18 months. A knock-down, drag-out fight at a local bar.

Impoundment.

For the past 15 months, Jamie has lived at a wildlife and primate sanctuary in Woodstock in Howard County. And for the past 15 months, the Glen Burnie couple has fought to get Jamie back. The Ritterspachs have spent more than $20,000 in lawyers' fees to challenge the county's confiscation of their pet.

"It's like having a kid ripped from your arms," said Steven Ritterspach, 46, a used-car wholesaler. He breaks into tears from time to time talking about his monkey. "Jamie and I have a special bond. He was like a kid when you'd come in in the afternoon. It was about 30 minutes of hard playtime with Dad and Jamie."

Jamie's saga, which has involved a half-dozen county and state agencies, has become a cause celebre in the small but tight-knit world of monkey enthusiasts. His impoundment and the dramatic brawl that preceded it have sparked ongoing discussions on monkeymaddness.com, a Web site for monkey-lovers.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals ruled in November that animal control officials were within their rights in seizing Jamie and turning him over to the sanctuary. The Ritterspachs have not decided whether to sue the county.

But Jamie's epic continues July 27, when the Howard County Planning Board is scheduled to review a zoning-variance application by Frisky's Wildlife and Primate Sanctuary, Jamie's new home. If the county denies the variance, the sanctuary could be ordered to shut down or change its operations.

While the Ritterspachs say they don't expect the hearing to bring Jamie back to them, Steven Ritterspach says he will be there to testify about what he believes are wrongdoings by Colleen Layton, the sanctuary's owner.

The hearing came about after an anonymous caller reported that Layton was violating county zoning by having too many animals. Layton, who has run the sanctuary for 30 years, maintains that the Ritterspachs have misplaced their frustrations about losing Jamie.

"I didn't ask for the monkey, and I'm not asking to keep him," Layton said.

Anne Arundel animal control officials put Jamie at Layton's sanctuary after his impoundment in April 1999, said Tahira S. Thomas, the agency's administrator. Steven Ritterspach's voice began to crack as he recounted what happened.

"This has just brought everything in our lives to a complete stop," he said as he stood in the kitchen of his two-story home, flipping through the dozens of snapshots he and his wife took of Jamie. "Life was good, I was rolling along, getting things done. Now, I just can't find the energy anymore."

The Ritterspachs lost two children shortly after birth, he said. All were three months premature.

The couple bought Jamie from a monkey broker for $4,000, and he and his wife still own three monkeys.

"A primate definitely is never going to replace a child," he said. "But it filled a void."

Jamie was first reported to the authorities July 14, 1997, records show, for biting a 6-year-old girl at a local carnival. He struck again in April, 1998, biting a 12-year-old girl. Animal control warned the Ritterspachs that if Jamie bit again, they would confine the monkey to the Ritterspach home.

Five months later, Jamie bit a 23-year-old woman. The Ritterspachs were ordered to keep Jamie at home, or on a leash if he left the house, county records show.

Two months later, Jamie scratched a 36-year-old woman, and the county confined Jamie to his owners' house.

That following April, the Ritterspachs decided to take Jamie out for a night on the town. They dressed him in a blue jumpsuit, Ritterspach recalled, and had him on a leash.

Shortly after midnight, the Ritterspachs stopped at the Speak Easy bar to have a few drinks. A woman came over to the couple where they were sitting in a back room and reached out to touch the monkey. Then, Ritterspach said, "all hell broke loose."

By the time the police arrived, several people were brawling at the bar, and Jamie was skittering and chattering, threatening to bite anyone who approached him, according to the police report.

The police asked Ritterspach to give the monkey to his wife, and, according to police reports, he refused. They hit Ritterspach with a blast of pepper spray, according to the incident report from that night. By the time the evening concluded, Jamie had bitten three people and Steven Ritterspach was charged with three counts of second-degree assault, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of resisting arrest.

He was later found not guilty on all counts except reckless endangerment, for which he was fined $1,055, court records show.

Since then, Jamie has lived in one of Colleen Layton's dozen monkey cages. He stays in the "macaque compound" on Layton's three-acre spread, just across from the turkeys that were found wandering the streets of Howard County a few months back. The primates have cable television in the cages--"Animal Court" is a favorite, Layton said.

Bright yellow signs bearing warnings about the dangers of monkeys blare out from every cage.

"Monkeys are very emotional," explained Layton, 48, who refers to primates' volatility as "PMS"--primate mood swings. "Much more so than your dog or cat. They can turn on a moment's notice."

Layton started her sanctuary about 30 years ago with a shoebox full of baby rabbits. She now has about 40 different animals in her "permanent collection"--the animals that will spend the rest of their lives at Frisky's--and dozens of other transient animals there for treatment and then release into the wild.

It's a 24-hour job, Layton said, but she loves it. "People always tell me they're jealous that I have all these animals," she said. "And I always tell them, 'No, they have me.' "

What would she do if the county closed her down?

"There are all these animals that have all these needs," she said. "It would destroy their lives, and it would destroy mine."

http://www.salisburypost.com/2000july/071600b.htm

Monkeys 'make terrible pets'
July 16, 2000
BY EMILY FORD
SALISBURY POST

Almost every day, someone calls Lorraine Smith at the N.C. Zoological Park looking for a pet monkey.

She listens, then tells them about her other phone calls.

The ones from people trying to get rid of a pet monkey that, once cute and cuddly, now bites and scratches them and their children.

"People get the idea that bottle-raising a monkey would be fun," said Smith, the curator of mammals at the zoo in Asheboro.

But they make terrible pets, she said.

"Monkeys are dangerous and unpredictable and, at some point, they will bite," said Richard Farinato, captive wildlife protection director for the Humane Society of the Unites States.

"Then, they will be bounced around from owner to owner until they end up rotting in a cage in someone's basement or at an exotic animal auction," Farinato said. "That's not the life you want for any animal."

Monkeys are bound to bite because that's how they discipline their young, Smith said.

"Monkeys deal with each other by biting, and they would deal with us that way. And we can't teach them otherwise," Smith said. "They are not children."

A monkey bite will hurt, could cause a bacterial infection and might even kill you, experts said.

Monkeys can carry deadly viruses and pass them on to people.

"With Old World monkeys, especially macaques, we're talking about herpes B, simian HIV and hepatitis," Farinato said.

Monkeys available on the Internet and through the pet trade could be more prone to violent behavior because people take them away from their mothers at such a young age, experts said.

"Hand-raised animals don't get the psychological development they need," Farinato said. "They have nothing to base their behavior on."

As monkeys mature, they become even more unpredictable, said Dr. Stephanie Ostrowski, a veterinarian epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And reintroducing them into a colony rarely works, she said.

"So you sacrifice the longterm good of the animals for a short-term commercial gain," Ostrowski said. "You traded two or three years of direct contact for 30 years in solitary confinement."

At the Charlotte Metro Zoo near Rockwell, owners plan to raise an infant monkey in their home and let people pose with it for $5.

"It sends the wrong message that monkeys are little tiny kids in furry coats," Farinato said. "While they'll claim that it's educational and helps people understand monkeys, all it will do is encourage other people to want baby monkeys."

Zoo owner Steve Macaluso disagrees.

"We educate every person that comes into the zoo that these are not pets, that you don't want to own one," he said.

Macaluso raised his first monkey 10 years ago. Scooter, a macaque, lives at Charlotte Metro Zoo and still lets Macaluso handle him, he said.

"I tell people it's like having a 2-year-old child who will never grow up," he said.

Despite what he says, Macaluso's actions encourage people to buy monkeys, Ostrowski said.

"If he truly believes that, he should not be setting that example," she said.

Raising an infant monkey is stressful and dangerous, Farinato said.

"And taking the baby has a horrendous impact on the mother," he said.

Farinato watched a mother monkey try to nurse her dead baby for three days before finally putting it down, he said. Mothers who lose a newborn to the pet trade go through a similar mourning process, he said.

"You want to see a heartbreaking scene ..." he said.

It's easy for untrained pet owners to misinterpret a wild animal's behavior, Ostrowski said.

When chimpanzees on TV or in the movies smile, they are actually frightened, she said.

"We see that big, toothy smile and say, 'How cute and funny,' " Ostrowski said. "People who are really tuned into behavior say it tears at their heart every time they see it.

"That's a fear grimace. That baby chimp is saying, 'I'm scared. Please don't hurt me.' "

In many primate species, a smile is a threat, Smith said.

"If we smile at them, they could respond by biting," she said.

Counties across the state are regulating or even banning exotic animals. The Rowan County Board of Health will consider an ordinance in August that calls for registering but not banning exotic animals.

"People feel their rights are being violated because they can't own animals, while neighbors feel their rights are violated because there's a lion in their backyard," Smith said. "We need to address this on the state level, but I don't see that happening."

When people call Smith looking for a home for their pet monkeys, she has to turn them away.

"We can't take them. There is no room at the inn," she said.

Instead, she directs them to an accredited sanctuary. But many refuges are already bursting with unwanted wild animals, she said.

The best solution is not to give in, Ostrowski said.

"Everyone thinks they want a baby wild animal, whether it's a monkey or a squirrel or a tiger," she said. "I think we have to move past that little impulse and do what's right for the animals and the environment and, in the long term, what's right for ourselves."
http://www.wtopnews.com/mainstory4.shtm
Monkey on the Run in Columbia
June 1, 2000

(Columbia, Md.-AP) -- Police searched in vain all day Wednesday for an escaped monkey that chased and bit a Columbia woman.

Officers from the Howard County Animal Control division scoured the area near the home where Debra Frederick was attacked by a 2 -foot-tall spider monkey.

The monkey approached Frederick, 38, Wednesday morning as she stepped outside her sister's home to give it a piece of bread. It snatched the bread from her hand and then bit her on the thigh as she ran away.

"It scared me to death. This is Columbia - this isn't the jungle," she said before she went to the hospital to have the superficial wound checked by a doctor.

Police set traps with grapes and bananas around the neighborhood, urged children to stay off the bike paths and asked residents to call a hot line if they spotted the monkey.

Chicago Sun Times
It's a jungle out there
February 25, 2000
BY CATE PLYS

We have a monkey in the neighborhood. It was interesting at first to see its owner "walking" it down the street, on a leash long enough for the monkey to scamper a good 10 feet up the trees. Of course, that was before it tried taking out my 2-year-old daughter.

So I was disappointed to hear that a bill to ban pet monkeys in Illinois, sponsored by state Rep. Anne Zickus (R-Palos Hills), was voted down last week by the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee. Who can't understand that pet monkeys are a public health threat? Monkey owners and dealers, that's who. And that's who the committee decided to listen to at a hearing, rather than experts from the Cook County Department of Health, the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control and Brookfield Zoo, plus written support from the Humane Society of the United States. Not one committee member voted yes.

"The members are rural members, and it's probably not an issue," Zickus explained. "And the pet owners and in particular the ones who sell [monkeys] had 30 or 40 people down here at the hearing."

About 90 percent of macaque monkeys, the most popular type, carry Herpes B virus, according to veterinary epidemiologist Stephanie Ostrowski of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Herpes B is harmless to monkeys but fatal in humans at least 50 percent of the time. It's spread by any bodily fluid contact. Monkeys also can catch and spread most human diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV.

"They all bite," said Ostrowski. "They bite without warning, and they have very big teeth." She recalled a recent incident in Albany, N.Y., in which a SWAT team in body armor had to subdue a 7-pound Capuchin monkey that had driven its owners out of their home. Pet monkeys already are illegal in California, Colorado, Georgia and New Jersey, she said.

Mark Matuck, communicable disease program coordinator at the Cook County Health Department, told the House committee all about monkey diseases. He also told them about last week's monkey attack in Lansing, where a pet named Zip turned his owner into a human pincushion. "It didn't seem to make much of an impact," Matuck told me. "One of the questions to me from the representatives was, `Has anybody died?' That isn't the point."

"I don't think the committee heard many points from anybody, really," said fellow witness Dr. Dan Parmer, administrator of the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control. "They weren't really interested in hearing. The thing was, the primate people came en masse."

No doubt monkey owners think it's their business if their pets maul them. Unfortunately, owners invariably take monkeys outside and endanger everyone else. A few months ago, said Matuck, someone was wheeling a young macaque around Northbrook Mall in a baby carriage. Monkeys also escape. Remember, we're talking about animals with fingers and opposable thumbs. In Pittsburgh two years ago, a monkey picked the lock on its cage and toured the neighborhood.

In my case, we brought our daughter outside and found the monkey up a tree in our front yard. All the kids from the block were gathered, staring up in wonder. Our daughter looked up too, until the monkey hurtled straight at her. In that split second, my husband threw himself between them. The monkey knocked the wind out of him. The monkey's owner scooped it up and hurried off. No apologies.

Two years later, the monkey bit a neighborhood friend of mine who was seven months pregnant, then ran off. The owner came back with it later--not to apologize, but to ask her to make up with the monkey, who was upset. Last year, another friend was walking down the street when the unleashed monkey dropped out of a tree onto her head.

If only those committee members would walk around my neighborhood for a while, maybe the monkey would drop on their heads too--and knock some sense into them.

PET MONKEY ATTACK PUTS ITS OWNER IN HOSPITAL;
25-POUND ANIMAL NO `MONSTER,' WOMAN SAYS

By Maria T. Galo, Chicago Tribune Staff Writer
20 February 2000

William Huscher will never forget the chaotic, bloody scene that greeted him when he returned home after picking up some Chinese take-out.

Huscher's wife, Cathy, 44, was lying on the floor of their Lansing home with paramedics tending to wounds inflicted by her pet Java monkey, Zip, who attacked her after being let out of his cage last Sunday night.

"There was blood everywhere, it was horrible," said Huscher, 42, on Friday. "I was so mad because of that monkey. All the family, they all hated him, and she would get mad at us because everyone hated him."

Cathy Huscher lost a pint and a half of blood in the attack, with 6-inch-deep bites and cuts on her head, arms and legs. She underwent three hours of surgery last Sunday at Community Hospital in Munster, Ind. On Friday, she was in stable condition, a nursing supervisor said.

Despite the attack, she still thinks affectionately of Zip and thinks he may have been neglected or abused by previous owners.

"Don't make him out to be a monster," she said from her hospital room. "He was my baby." Still, when the monkey leaped from the cage onto her head with a little scream, "I thought I was going to die," she said.

The monkey will be killed, William Huscher said, and his brain examined for rabies. Lansing police ticketed the Huschers for having a monkey without a license.

Cathy Huscher also faces about 12 weeks of therapy as doctors wait for the wounds to heal before trying any reconstructive surgery, her husband said. Her left arm was badly damaged when she tried to yank it out of the monkey's jaws, and the attack also left a fist-size hole behind her right knee.

The attack came just three days before an Illinois House panel defeated a bill to add primates to the list of pets banned under the Illinois Dangerous Animals Act.

William Huscher is convinced that monkeys are dangerous. "They belong in trees, they don't belong in people's homes," he said.

The Great Java monkey looks like a small baboon with fang-like incisors that are "the size of your pinkie, on top and bottom," Huscher said. Zip weighs about 25 pounds and stands 2 feet high.

The Huschers, who also own two miniature Doberman pinschers, got the 7-year-old monkey about a year ago from a friend. Zip bit Cathy Huscher on the hand the first day, her husband said. About five months later, the monkey attacked one of the dogs, and then, a few months ago, he jumped on Cathy Huscher and bit and scratched her on the head.

"But it was nothing major, just some little scratches and teeth marks," William Huscher said. But William Huscher said he did not like being home when the monkey was out of its cage.

Last Sunday, Cathy Huscher said she was going to let the monkey out to play. "I said, `then I'm leaving,' " her husband said, and drove off to pick up dinner. When he saw emergency vehicles in the driveway upon his return, "I knew right away, I knew what it was, it was the monkey," he said.

When People Play Host to Some Of Their Best Friends' Diseases
http://www.foxnews.com/science/021800/petdiseases.sml
7:00 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) February 18, 2000 By Amanda Onion

NEW YORK - Barbara Healy lives with six monkeys.

While charming to watch, macaques can leave a disease behind after a bite she says usually the pet macaques that live in her outdoor and indoor enclosures make wonderful companions. But monkeys are wild animals and, inevitably, their feral side occasionally surfaces.

One of Healy's monkeys, whom Healy suspects has a troubled past, sometimes reaches through his cage and scratches her. "He even pulled out a chunk of my hair once," she said.

Healy is one among a coalition of exotic animal owners nationwide who recently lobbied to knock down pending legislation in Illinois to ban certain exotic pets, including monkeys. The proposed bill was rejected in committee on Tuesday, but the battle continues between pet owners who say it's perfectly safe to keep exotic animals and health officials who cringe at the thought.

"We dread getting calls about monkey bites," said Connie Austin of the Illinois department of health. "Macaque monkeys very frequently transmit the Herpes B virus and this virus is 70 percent fatal in people."

A March 1998 report from the federal Centers for Disease Control states that the deadly Herpes B virus is 80 to 90 percent prevalent in adult macaque monkeys. If a monkey is infected, it may not exhibit symptoms, but it can easily transmit the disease to people by a bite or scratch.

Healy claims the CDC's figures are inaccurate and reflect only those populations of macaques that are kept in the closed quarters of scientific laboratories. The number of monkeys who infect their owners is difficult to assess, says Austin, because people are reluctant to report a problem in fear that their monkeys will be taken away.

Dogs are mostly harmless but can carry worms or other parasites

Whatever the true numbers, the risk of contracting life-threatening diseases exists - and not just among owners of exotic pets. Every year health agencies across the country document cases of pets attacking their owners or inadvertently infecting them with diseases that prove grave or even fatal. About two-thirds of Americans own pets and every year about four million of them contract diseases from their animals.

"There are very important psychological and social benefits of owning a pet," said Fred Angulo, an epidemiologist at the CDC. "But those benefits sometimes need to be balanced against adverse health effects."

While many health officials believe keeping a macaque is a bad idea ("Macaques are never appropriate pets, period," says Mira Leslie of the Arizona Department of Health Services) they simply encourage increased vigilance when it comes to avoiding infection from less exotic pets.

Angulo points out, for example, that many don't realize that reptiles are very common carriers of salmonella. Salmonella is a bacteria that can be spread from the feces of an animal to a person through ingestion. It can lead to serious infections, particularly among children and immunocompromised people.

"What's different about reptiles is they live in pens and crawl through their feces," said Angulo. "So if you touch the head of a reptile, you could easily also be touching their feces."

Iguanas and other reptiles can leave a trail of bacteria in their wake

A simple solution, Angulo says, is to wash your hands after handling a reptile pet. But as more and more people take in snakes, iguanas and turtles as pets (the CDC estimates 3 percent of U.S. households now have reptilian pets), there has also been a noted increase in salmonella infections from the animals.

The increase was enough to urge the CDC to publish a November 1999 report advising people to keep reptiles out of homes with children under five or immunocompromised people.

Even if a child is kept away from the pet, the bacteria can still be spread indirectly. Angulo has heard reports of people washing their reptiles' cages in the kitchen sink or letting their animals walk around the kitchen. These practices lead to contaminating surfaces where food is prepared.

Another commonly feared animal-borne disease is toxoplasmosis. This condition is spread from cat feces and can cause birth defects or miscarriage if a pregnant woman is infected. Again, basic caution can avoid the problem. "Just let the men take care of the litter box," advises Evret Newman, a veterinarian at the Zoonosis Control Program of the Texas Department of Health.

In fact, the list of pets that can potentially carry diseases is practically all-inclusive. Rabbits may actually pose more of a risk to pregnant women since they can spread listeriosis, salmonella or, in some rare cases, the bubonic plague.

Duckling droppings can carry salmonella

Puppies and kittens can spread heartworm or ringworm if they're not properly inoculated. Chicks and ducklings, apparently a common gift to children at Easter, can transmit salmonella through their droppings. This month a 72-year-old Massachusetts woman with a kidney problem died after contracting meningitis from the droppings of her cockatoo.

Catching diseases from animals is hardly a new problem. In Medieval Europe plagues were often spread by rats and fleas. Fleas would feast on the rats' blood and then jump to a human host and spread any pathogens the rats were carrying to people. Last summer, New York City saw an outbreak of West Nile fever, when the virus had taken a similar path from birds to mosquitoes to people.

Since pets play an integral role in so many people's lives, few health officials are advising people to get rid of their pets altogether. Instead they recommend caution and good sense when handling animals.

But exotic pets may be another matter. Newman of the Texas health department argues we know too little about exotic animals such as sugar gliders (a tiny opossum) and geckos to understand what viruses or bacteria they may carry. And he says the possibility of catching a harmful virus from primate pets is only greater.

"Primates are so close on the genetic scale to us that almost all of the pathogens they carry will be transferable to people," he said. Newman and many other veterinarians and animal rights activists further argue that keeping an exotic animal like a monkey is cruel and unfair to the animal, itself. "Personally I don't know why anyone would want one," Newman said.

Healy says she has wanted a pet monkey ever since she was a child when she spent her afternoons watching the apes and monkeys at a nearby zoo in Atlanta. And she claims she offers a comfortable home to monkeys that would otherwise be spending their time in laboratory cages.

She also adds that the factor that worries health officials about disease transmission - our common ancestry with primates - is the same reason she feels unusually close to her six monkeys.

"Most of the people who have primates don't consider them pets - they're like the child who never grows up," she said. "There is an immediate bond."

Chicago Tribune
February 15, 2000 Tuesday, CHICAGO SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SERIOUS MONKEY BUSINESS IS BREWING;
LEGISLATOR SEEKS BAN ON ANIMALS AS PETS

BY: By Bradley Keoun, Tribune Staff Writer.

Cheetah the squirrel monkey likes to sit atop her cage, sucking her thumb and watching TV. Sometimes she sits at a desk and pecks the computer keyboard.

She also likes to push Fisher-Price blocks through correspondingly shaped square, circular and triangular openings in the lid of a plastic tub.

"She's like one of my kids," said Des Plaines Ald. Tom Becker, stroking the 6-pound monkey's peach-colored face through an opening in the cage.

But Becker's attachment to his pet is threatened by a bill, expected to be debated Tuesday in Springfield, that would add "non-human primates" to the categories of pets banned under the Illinois Dangerous Animals Act. Banned animals include hyenas and dangerous cats such as lions.

Violators could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine and up to 30 days in jail. More importantly for owners like Becker, they could be forced to give up their monkeys to zoos or pounds.

State Rep. Anne Zickus (R-Palos Hills) said she proposed the measure, which is supported by animal and health officials, because monkeys are difficult to manage and can suffer mentally and physically if they don't get proper care. What's more, the animals can transmit such diseases as herpes, tuberculosis and hepatitis.

"They have special needs--it's not like a domesticated dog or cat," said Zickus, who first learned about the dangers of pet monkeys after speaking with Brookfield Zoo officials during a legislative luncheon in July.

"The monkey-with-the-organ-grinder days are over," said Dan Parmer, administrator of the Cook County Department of Animal Control. "These animals are supposed to be in zoos."

Zoos, circuses and research labs must get a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep monkeys. But there are no licensing or vaccination requirements for monkeys kept as pets in Illinois.

Other states, including New Jersey, California and Georgia, have enacted either an outright ban on pet monkeys or imposed stringent requirements that all but rule out private ownership.

In Florida, inspectors cannot grant permits to monkey owners until they have inspected the home environment and size of the cage the pet will inhabit.

Zickus said she has no idea how many pet monkeys there are in Illinois. But some monkey owners estimate there are hundreds.

Under her proposal, monkey owners would be forced to turn over their pets to wildlife sanctuaries, animal pounds and zoos. But there is no guarantee the sanctuaries and zoos would accept them.

Dennis Pate, Lincoln Park Zoo curator, said zoos rarely take pet monkeys because their pedigrees are unknown and their species usually aren't a part of captive breeding programs. Also, he said, they don't get along well with other zoo animals.

Zickus said she might be willing to allow current monkey owners to keep their pets.

Pet primates have been a feature of popular culture for years: Disney's Aladdin had his Abu; the Wonder Twins of Saturday-morning cartoon fame had Gleek; and Clint Eastwood teamed with a beer-swilling orangutan, Clyde, in "Every Which Way But Loose."

Yet tales of good pet monkeys gone bad abound. In 1995, a 31-year-old Elgin driver was injured after a pet monkey escaped from its cage and jumped on her back, forcing her to lose control of the car. The year before, a pet monkey in Florida jumped out of a woman's purse and bit the ear of a man dining in an Italian restaurant.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which tracks infectious diseases, doesn't have an official count of the number of times humans have contracted illnesses from monkeys.

But health officials point to a 1997 tragedy in which a 22-year-old worker at a Georgia primate research center died after contracting a herpes virus from a rhesus monkey. Veterinarians say other monkey-borne diseases could be similarly lethal.

"Since they're so closely related to humans, there's a lot of disease transmission, and it goes both ways," said Jackie Zdziarski, an associate veterinarian with Brookfield Zoo.

Phil Snyder, who directs the six-state regional office of the Humane Society of the United States, which includes Illinois, said as a field officer in Elkhart, Ind., in 1975 he confiscated a baboon that its owners had gotten drunk at a party.

"Whoever ends up with them does not know the needs of these animals, does not know what's needed in terms of the surroundings, in terms of housing," he said. "It's not like having a dog in the back yard."

Supporters of pet monkeys say such claims are exaggerated.

Camille Dorian, editor of California-based Monkey Matters magazine, said most problems come from rhesus monkeys, many of which are sold to the public by breeders and research laboratories that have finished with them. Because of the way lab monkeys are raised, they are more likely to carry certain diseases.

"I don't want you to take away my 2 1/2-pound squirrel monkey because your 30-pound macaque has a herpes B virus," she said.

Matthew and Kathy Anderson of Des Plaines keep six monkeys--three squirrel monkeys and three capuchins--in two spare bedrooms of their house. They acknowledge the monkeys are difficult to manage: They can't take vacations because they have found no one who can take care of their pets, even for a few days. They both have scars from scratches they have suffered since buying their first monkey from a dealer in Missouri in 1989.

Even so, Matthew Anderson said, they would oppose a bill outlawing their pets: "These animals become attached to you. It would be a pretty cold person who could have a pet for 10 years and be able to give them away."

Becker said he called his state representative about the bill, scheduled to go before the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee on Tuesday afternoon. He also has not ruled out going to Springfield.

"She's never actually been around (other) monkeys," he said. "She doesn't think she's a monkey. She's one of the family."

THE PANTAGRAPH (Bloomington, IL.)
February 8, 2000, Tuesday

Zookeeper agrees law should ban pet primates

BY: Associated Press with Pantagraph reports

SPRINGFIELD - Primates would be added to the list of restricted animals in the state's Dangerous Animals Act, under a bill sponsored by State Rep. Anne Zickus, R-Palos Hills. A local animal expert doesn't disagree with the idea.

Animals on the list, such as an exotic cat or poisonous snake, are considered dangerous and can live only in zoos, research labs and other controlled environments. John Tobias, director of Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, said smaller primates may not be as dangerous as the larger ones, but "in general, it is not a good idea to keep exotic animals as pets."

People mistakenly believe some animals, such as chimpanzees, are friendly and harmless. But an adult male chimpanzee can be bigger than a human and can kill a person. Other larger primates can "do some serious damage," Tobias said.

"I advocate no primates as pet animals," he said.

Many people bring home an exotic animal or primate as a pet and do not know how to take care of it, so they call a zoo to take it in. But if the zoo has no need for that type of animal, Tobias said, then it cannot take it. "Zoos have limited spaces," he said.

Many primates and exotic animals are social animals. If they are raised at home, it can be difficult to introduce the group atmosphere of a zoo.

On the other hand, Normal Pet Supply Center owner Stan Woelfle thinks primates could be pets, but there should be a screening process for customers to determine if they could care for that pet.

Permit tags, Woelfle said, are required to purchase or sell an exotic animal or primate. His store does not have a permit tag.

Woelfle believes animals having diseases is not a valid argument for not considering them pet-worthy, because the diseased animals would have been screened out already.

The bill is being considered by a House committee and may be sent to another committee for approval before it is sent to the full House.

Zickus said she hopes an amendment could be added to allow current primate owners to keep their pets.

"I don't want to take anybody's pet away if it's in a loving environment," she said.

The bill is HB 4067.

San Antonio Express-News
January 19, 2000, Wednesday, METRO

Wild animals not suited as pets

The ultimate gift giver may have endeared himself to his true love with swans, calling birds, French hens, turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree, but experts at the Texas Department of Health say such living presents can be present serious problems for the new owners.

"Buying or giving exotic pets such as monkeys, hedgehogs, prairie dogs, reptiles or other wildlife potentially can be dangerous to both humans and the animals themselves," said veterinarian Jane Mahlow, director of the TDH Zoonosis Control Division.

These unusual animals can bring with them dangerous, sometimes deadly diseases.

African pigmy hedgehogs and reptiles such as snakes, lizards, turtles and iguanas, for instance, carry strains of salmonella bacteria in their intestines.

Salmonella bacteria do not make the animal sick, but in people it can cause serious cases of severe diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps or even death, especially in young children, the elderly and those with immune-compromised systems.

A person does not have to have direct contact with the reptile but can get the bacteria from another person who handles the reptile or household surfaces the animal may have touched.

"Everyone who touches the reptile or its cage should always wash their hands afterward," Mahlow said. "Also, the kitchen sink is no place to bathe reptiles or to wash their dishes, cage or aquarium."

Reptiles should not be allowed to roam around the house, especially if young children are in the home. Salmonella can live on furniture and in carpets.

"And reptiles should never be kept in child-care centers," Mahlow said.

Monkeys, too, seem irresistible, with their childlike qualities and humorous antics. But macaques, Asian monkeys including the rhesus, commonly carry the herpes B virus.

Like salmonella in reptiles, herpes B causes no noticeable disease in macaques.

But in humans, the virus (also know as monkey B virus or simply B virus) leads to an illness that can cause death. Monkey bites are the primary way humans get herpes B virus.

Cute and curious, prairie dogs draw attention to their natural villages on the Western plains of Texas. But these wild rodents come from the same area in the state where bubonic plague is found.

People may become infected by being bitten by fleas on the prairie dogs that are carrying the plague organism.

"Wild animals are best left in the wild," Mahlow said. "They can be unpredictable, possibly posing a threat to people of severe attack. And rabies from wild animals is always a concern."

And wild animals can face many problems living in captivity. Most will not live long in an average household. Their diets are different from domestic pets, and the wrong food can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies.

Many require as much care and attention as a human infant.

The Tampa Tribune
January 15, 2000, Saturday, FINAL EDITION

Runaway pet monkey mauls neighbor's dog
ROB SHAW, of The Tampa Tribune;

PALM HARBOR - Wildlife officials are on the lookout for an escaped monkey after a dog is viciously attacked.

Patrick Cambier was walking his dog Friday morning when he saw his neighbor's monkey in the street.

The next thing he knew, the primate was savagely attacking Balto, his 11-year-old Siberian husky. "He kept biting and biting and biting," said Maureen Cambier, who was not along for the walk. "My husband kept trying to kick him off. There was blood everywhere."

Finally, Cambier and some others who came to the rescue near Pop Stansel Park were able to get the spider monkey off the 65-pound dog's body. Balto lay on the sidewalk, bleeding and going into shock. He was taken to Countryside Animal Hospital, where he was treated for serious artery and tendon damage.

The monkey, owned by Ann Torke of 632 Sound View Drive, remained on the loose Friday evening. It normally is housed in a backyard cage, sheriff's officials said.

Maureen Cambier said it's not the first time the monkey has slipped out of its cage.

"The monkey has to go," she said. "He needs to be out of this neighborhood. There are a lot of children here. He could very easily have attacked one of them."

But animal control officials say they can't seize the monkey with just one biting incident on another animal. The Torkes were cited by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, however, for possession of the monkey without a valid permit.

They had a permit, but it expired last June, said the state agency's Gary Morris. The couple also was warned for having unsafe housing conditions resulting in the escape.

Spider monkeys average between 16 and 21 inches in length, without their long tail included. An average adult would weigh about 19 pounds. Rob Shaw covers Pinellas County and can be reached at (727) 799-7413 or rshaw@tampatrib.com

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
January 15, 2000, Saturday
Escaped spider monkey mauls dog

BY: JANE MEINHARDT

PALM HARBOR - Authorities say the monkey was hiding in trees before it attacked the husky in a Palm Harbor park.

A Siberian husky walking on a leash with its master was badly injured Friday when it was attacked in Pop Stansell Park by a spider monkey authorities say escaped from a cage at a nearby residence.

Pinellas County sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita said the dog, named Balto, was bitten severely by the monkey, which remained on the loose Friday afternoon. The dog had artery and tendon injuries requiring surgery at Countryside Animal Hospital, he said.

"It was a savage attack," said Maureen Cambier, one of Balto's owners. "He was bitten repeatedly and blood was everywhere. He's been in surgery all day."

The 11-year-old dog is expected to recover, she said, but may have permanent injuries that could cripple it.

Officials at Countryside Animal Hospital declined to discuss the dog's injuries.

Mrs. Cambier said her husband, Patrick Cambier, a cardiologist, was able to stanch the dog's bleeding until he could take it to the veterinarian for emergency treatment.

Cambier, who was not available to comment Friday, was walking Balto about 8:30 a.m. when the attack happened in the park near their house on Soundview Drive. The monkey, named Hanahan, was hiding in nearby mangroves and attacked the dog, Tita said.

With help from some neighbors and a contractor's crew working on a nearby house, the monkey was driven away.

"My husband had to repeatedly kick it," Mrs. Cambier said. "It would not let go, and it bit his sneaker."

According to Tita, the monkey is owned by Anna Torke, who lives across the street from the Cambiers. The monkey escaped from a cage at her house, he said. Torke would not comment Friday.

"Balto is a family member," Mrs. Cambier said. "He is very docile and very gentle. He was on a leash on a public street. This was a hostile monkey. What if it had been (an attack on) a child?"

Deputies and county Animal Control officers searched for the monkey Friday. It was last seen heading into mangroves near the park.

Depending on the species, spider monkeys are 14 to 26 inches high, with long limbs and a long tail that acts almost like an extra limb.

Kenny Mitchell, animal control director, said his agency would investigate circumstances involved in the attack. County ordinances regarding dangerous animals also can be applied to monkeys, he said, but attacks by monkeys are rare in Pinellas.

"All monkeys bite if they aren't controlled," Mitchell said. "They look cute, but they bite a lot and have very sharp teeth. For their size, they are very powerful."
St. Petersburg Times
14 January 2000, Friday, South Pinellas Edition

St. Petersburg council worries about monkeys
BY KELLY RYAN

Some City Council members and one woman's neighbors want the exotic pets to be outlawed.

The City Council is ready to wage war against monkey business.

Though the state regulates exotic pets such as the tamarin monkeys and the lemur living in Causeway Isles, several council members vowed Thursday to find some way to outlaw the animals they say pose a health risk.

The city will ask the Pinellas County Health Department to find out whether the pets could make people sick. The city will research new zoning rules to keep cages at least 75 feet from the nearest home.

City leaders also plan to meet with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and persuade state regulators that monkeys don't belong in residential neighborhoods.

"To be honest, I'd say let's quarantine the house and let them sue us," said council member Larry Williams. "The answer is get the monkeys out of St. Petersburg."

Since Martha Stewart (not the famous home-decor queen) moved into her west St. Petersburg neighborhood last summer with two tamarin monkeys and a lemur, some neighbors have raised a stink. They are worried about noise, pollution and disease.

But Stewart, a former research biologist and a legal writer, says her neighbors are spreading lies about the pets and her treatment of them. She says there is a breed of primates that can get people sick - but not the ones she has.

She says she has all of the appropriate permits (state officials confirm she does), she keeps her property and cages immaculate, and her pets make less noise than her neighbors' dogs.

In tears, Stewart says her pets aren't the problem - the neighbors are. She said she has been harassed since moving to St. Petersburg in August; neighbors curse at her, call police on her and honk their boat horns in the canal behind her house to torment her animals.

"I've never seen such cruel people, and I am within the law," said Stewart, 46, who added that stress about her pets has exacerbated her asthma. "They're lucky I don't sue them, and I might. This is a personal injury, and it's slander."

City Council member Robert Kersteen, whose district includes Causeway Isles, has never spoken to Stewart. But he said he believes the concerns of her neighbors, who have contacted state regulators and lobbied council members.

"It's noisy; it's outrageous," said Lynn Zirkle, who lives across the canal from Stewart. "If someone gets bit, there will be lawsuits. It's just not the place to raise monkeys."

On Thursday, Kersteen went to City Hall with a videotape of the Nov. 17 20/20 news magazine program, which a council subcommittee viewed. The video stoked the council's concerns.

During the program, a reporter described people getting infected from monkeys carrying herpes B, tuberculosis, hepatitis and other diseases. Some species of monkeys, which are becoming more popular as pets, were described as an "emerging public health threat."

"I'm really concerned from a communicable disease standpoint," said council member Rene Flowers. "This is dangerous."

An official with the Bureau of State Epidemiology has told the St. Petersburg Times that macaques can carry herpes, but that tamarins and lemurs do not. They also do not carry HIV, the official said.

The city has tried before to regulate exotic pets - in 1986, it was cougars. But a court struck down the city's rules, saying the city has no authority to regulate wildlife.

Council members remain undeterred. They said the primate problem is too big "Kersteen called it an "emergency") to ignore.

But Stewart thinks the city's panic is silly and a waste of taxpayers' resources. "That's absurd," Stewart said.

Des Moines Register
January 8, 2000 Saturday
Wayward monkey heading for a new home

BY: Jeff Eckhoff

The unfortunate incarceration of a rhesus macaque monkey comes to an end today.

Nicky, held by Des Moines Animal Control officers since before Thanksgiving, is scheduled to depart for a new Kentucky home at 8 a.m.

Police Sgt. David Huberty said the monkey, which was found wandering in a north-side neighborhood Nov. 23, will be driven to Chicago by Tom Colvin of the local Animal Rescue League. There, Colvin will turn the monkey over to officials of the Primate Rescue Center Inc., a Nicholasville, Ky.-based organization that has been trying to adopt Nicky for weeks.

Huberty said regulations forced Animal Control to keep the monkey locked up. "The problem is we can't release it without a health certificate," Huberty said. "They're carriers of various diseases."

The first blood sample got lost during shipping to a lab in Texas. A second came back clean. By that time, however, the monkey had bitten an animal control worker, forcing a 12-day quarantine.

April Truitt, founder of the primate center, was one of several people who offered to take the rhesus. Des Moines Mayor Preston Daniels said he received several pleas on the monkey's behalf, and he's happy to have Nicky off his back.

"I'm getting monkey letters from PETA. I'm getting monkey letters from somebody up at Iowa State. . . " Daniels said. "I just want the monkey gone."

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
July 05, 2000, Wednesday
Monkey owner found dead at home

BY: JON WILSON

ST. PETERSBURG -- Some blame Martha Stewart's suicide on neighborhood complaints about her pet monkeys she kept at her home. "She felt her neighbors didn't like her anymore."

Martha Stewart's monkeys have been taken elsewhere and her ashes, as she requested, will be scattered over water.

The 47-year-old Causeway Isles resident, whose lemur and two tamarin monkeys upset neighbors and brought City Hall attention, was found dead at home on June 13.

The medical examiner's officer ruled the death a gunshot suicide. Police found a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, according to reports.

"She felt her neighbors didn't like her anymore," said City Council member Bob Kersteen, who represents the Causeway Isles neighborhood.

Newspaper and television reports featured Stewart and her pets last year soon after she moved into the trim house at 7949 Fourth Ave. S. Neighbors said they were concerned about the animals' noise and diseases they might spread.

The controversy came before the City Council, which asked the city staff to find a way to ban the animals.

But that proved to be difficult because state regulations governed Stewart's animals - and a state wildlife officer said she was within the law.

Authorities were not poised to take Stewart's animals. No city action was pending.

"There was nothing threatening her animals," said Mark Winn, senior assistant city attorney.

Stewart had complained to the media, friends and relatives about neighbors harassing her. "She couldn't even go out in her front yard," said her sister Kathryn Jachna.

There were signs Stewart was about to put the situation behind her.

Kersteen said he believed Stewart, who had degrees in law, marine science and ornithology, was planning to move out of the neighborhood.

A friend had removed the monkeys, then returned the next day to get the cages and discovered Stewart's body, said Jachna.

Jachna said she did not know her sister had a gun, nor, said Kersteen, did anyone in St. Petersburg.

"It's unfortunate when something like this happens," Kersteen said. "I don't feel good about it. It pains me."

Jachna said Stewart left no note, "but she left a lot of papers concerning the neighbors."

Lynn Zirkle was one of Stewart's neighbors. "It's a shame the lady killed herself," he said, adding that animal regulation remains a concern.

"Even though the monkeys are gone out of my neighborhood, it's still a problem in the city," he said. "We can't drop it now just because these are gone."

The Des Moines Register
December 28, 1999, Tuesday
Monkey adoption delayed: 'Nicky' nipped a handler, leading to a quarantine, but now his chances look good.
By TOM ALEX, Register Staff Writer

Attempts by Des Moines animal control officers to place a runaway monkey in a good home have been beset by bad luck, health concerns and a nip to a handler by the animal in question.

After more than a month, the monkey who was swinging around a north-side neighborhood is on the fast track to adoption.

"We don't want to keep him one day longer than we have to," said Des Moines police Sgt. David Huberty. "My goal is to find the best place for him and get rid of him as fast as we can."

Groups and individuals have expressed interest in adopting the monkey, including the Primate Rescue Center Inc. of Nicholasville, Ky.

April Truitt, founder of the rescue center, has been trying to adopt the monkey but as one obstacle after another stalled adoption, she wrote a letter to Des Moines Mayor Preston Daniels, pleading for help. She wrote that she had learned the monkey had bitten a handler, was in quarantine for 12 days, and at the end of that time might be euthanized as a "vicious animal."

Huberty said animal control officers never planned to destroy the animal unless it presented a clear health risk. Adoption procedures stalled when officials learned the monkey, named Nicky by an animal control employee, was not a South American spider monkey but instead a rhesus macaque, which can carry the fatal herpes B virus.

Huberty said a blood sample from the monkey was sent to a laboratory for analysis. That sample was lost during shipping. A second sample made it to the lab and the little macaque was given a clean bill of health.

About the same time, the monkey bit a handler when its leash became tangled. The mandatory quarantine followed.

"We have several groups or individuals who would like to have the monkey," Huberty said. "Before we give it to one of them we have to have a health certificate, they have to be aware of the risks and they will have to show proof of insurance in case something would happen."

Truitt hopes to welcome Nicky to the Primate Rescue Center, which has 11 chimpanzees and 35 monkeys. The center already has the insurance necessary to fulfill legal obligations, Truitt said.

Nicky was found Nov. 23 running around the 1800 block of Allison Avenue. " We still don't know whom it belonged to," Huberty said.

Nicky apparently had been living in a garage. "No one has come forward to claim it." That's not surprising, because a monkey is an illegal animal under city code.

The Capital (Annapolis, MD.)
December 27, 1999, Monday

Man loses appeal to keep monkey

BY: By BRIAN M. SCHLETER Staff Writer

A Glen Burnie man whose pet monkey was taken by the county after it bit a woman in a local bar has lost an appeal seeking custody of the animal.

The county Board of Appeals voted 4-2 earlier this month not to return Jamie the macaque monkey to his owner, Steven Ritterspach, and his family. Jamie was taken from the Ritterspachs in April fo lowing the biting incident at the Speak Easy Bar in Glen Burnie. The Ritterspachs appeared before the board Dec. 1 and told board members they deserved a second chance because they weren't educated on how to care for a pet monkey when they lost Jamie.

But Assistant County Attorney Sally Iliff argued that Mr. Ritterspach had a history of abusing second chances granted him by county Animal Control in previous biting and scratching cases.

Board of Appeals members could not comment on the decision be cause the case is still open, Chair man Anthony Lamartina said.

Once the board issues a written decision, the Ritterspachs will have 30 days to appeal in court. The monkey is being kept in a Howard County animal shelter.

Mr. Ritterspach could not be reached for comment.

Animal Control officers seized Jamie following Mr. Ritterspach's April 3 arrest on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. Mr. Ritterspach and his wife, Kimberly, stopped at the bar for a drink after attending a party with their monkey. Mr. Ritterspach was arrested for his role in a fight that erupted when a woman he didn't know tried to take Jamie off his wife's shoulder, he said at the Board of Appeals hearing.

A District Court judge acquitted him on three counts of assault Dec. 1, but Mr. Ritterspach was found guilty of reckless endangerment, according to court records.

District Judge David Bruce or ordered Mr. Ritterspach to pay a $1,000 fine and suspended a sixmonth jail sentence. Judge Bruce also placed Mr. Ritterspach on probation until February 2008, said Kristin Riggin, a spokesman for the State's Attorney's Office.

Mr. Ritterspach will return to District Court Jan. 24 to answer to a charge of "monkey being a public nuisance." He was previously found guilty on Nov. 15 of failure to confine a vicious animal, a misdemeanor.

THE BALTIMORE SUN
December 23, 1999, Thursday, ARUNDEL

Owners denied custody of pet monkey; Couple vows to keep fighting
for primate that nipped people

Andrea F. Siegel

Jamie won't be home for Christmas -- or maybe not ever again.

The male macaque, blamed for inflicting minor injuries on several people and igniting a barroom brawl, will not be returned to his Glen Burnie owners, the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals has decided.

But the owners, Steven and Kimberly Ritterspach, vowed yesterday to challenge the ruling in Circuit Court. "I won't let this end," said Steven Ritterspach, noting that he has spent $20,000 on efforts to regain custody of the pet monkey that was seized and relocated by Anne Arundel animal control officials to a wildlife refuge in Howard County. "We won't give up fighting for him. We love him, and we want him back."

The board voted 4-2, with one member not participating in the case, against giving the couple another chance to better control the 9- pound primate alleged to have nipped and scratched seven people. A written opinion by the board is due within a month.

Jamie was removed from the Ritterspach home after biting a woman on the lip in a Glen Burnie bar -- an incident that occurred after animal control officials had ordered the couple to keep the monkey away from the public.

That incident, at the Speak-Easy- Inn, led to a fight and police filing misdemeanor criminal charges against Ritterspach. Two weeks ago, Ritterspach was found not guilty of most charges, but convicted of recklessly endangering other people, fined $1,000, and given a six-month suspended sentence.

Ritterspach said he and his wife, who bottle-fed Jamie from infancy and allowed him to sleep in their bed, were devastated by the decision. Though county law would not bar them from getting a new monkey, they have been fighting to regain custody of Jamie for eight months because they consider him part of their family, he said.

The couple bought the monkey in 1997, after their prematurely born infant died. Ritterspach said that while a pet is not a replacement for a child, taking care of the monkey helped Kimberly Ritterspach deal with the loss of the infant and two others since.

The loss of Jamie has left his wife depressed, he said. "It gives you love and you love it back, and to have it taken from you is more than my wife and I can handle."

The board's vote, finalized this week, upholds a finding by animal control officials, who said that the primate is a public menace, and that its owners disregarded warnings to keep it under control.

Fined three times in less than a year, the couple has challenged each penalty, once with success and once without; the third is pending.

"They are not responsible enough to control an animal that is a danger to the public," said Sarah M. Iliff, the assistant county attorney who represented animal control officials.

Testimony at the Board of Appeals hearing, including that of a Baltimore Zoo veterinarian, indicated that macaques are aggressive and can carry diseases that are potentially fatal to humans.

Responsibility for the macaque rests with Tahira Shane Thomas, animal control administrator, who said she is inclined to let the 2-year-old monkey stay where it has resided since April, at Frisky's Wildlife and Primate Refuge in Woodstock.

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
December 22, 1999, Wednesday CITY EDITION
Exotic animal law altered New macaques still not allowed
Jack Money, Staff Writer

Oklahoma City Council members adopted numerous changes to the city's exotic animal law Tuesday, but would not relent on a continued ban against any new macaques within the community.

Instead, the council allowed four such monkeys already within the city to stay, provided their owners comply with the law and license them.

Other amendments made to the law Tuesday were to:

Delete the requirement for tuberculosis tests in all allowed monkeys, and delete Herpes B testing requirements for "new world monkeys, including capuchins, marmosets, tamarinds and squirrel monkeys. Also, extended time to license the animals to March 1.

Exempt testing for young monkeys kept by a licensed breeder.

Exempt testing for monkeys if a private veterinarian certifies the animal doesn't represent a health problem.

Reduce the licensing fee for breeders from $ 500 to $ 100.

Most of Tuesday's debate again focused on whether macaques should be allowed within the city.

The discussion, which lasted more than an hour, even included a segment from a broadcast news magazine about the monkeys and the debate they spawn.

While monkey lovers and veterinarians maintain there has never been a documented case where a macaque has transmitted a disease to someone within the general public, council members worried that many of the macaques making their way into private ownership are from labs and zoos.

"Once these animals are out there, it is hard to document where they came from," said Ward 2 Councilwoman Amy Brooks, who met with monkey lovers to craft the compromise allowing the city's four resident macaques to remain.

"If somebody wants a monkey, why can't they get a new world monkey?" Brooks asked. "We are allowing the new world monkeys. Why do they have to get a macaque?

"This will prevent any potential dangerous animals from coming into the community," she said.

The law changes approved by the council Tuesday also lengthened the time allowed for big cat owners to register their animals with the city to Feb. 15.

Assistant City Manager Kathie Wrights said the additional time for big cats registrations stems from changes in how the city wants the animals to be documented.

Wrights said owners will have to put identity microchips into the animals, provide the city with two color photographs of the animals, and get written consent from abutting homeowners to prove the animals are welcome.

Council members decided during an earlier debate to allow city residents to own lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, cougars, bobcats, ocelots, cheetahs, margays, mountain lions, lynxes, jaguars and jaguarundi, but only if certain conditions are met.

They can only keep one big cat and only on properties that are at least five acres in size.

Chicago Tribune
December 3, 1999 Friday, FINAL EDITION
VIRUS-POSITIVE MONKEYS WILL BE MOVED

BY: From Tribune News Services.

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA --Six monkeys that tested positive for a virus that is potentially deadly to humans will be moved in January from their home at an Evansville zoo to a Texas research facility.

Ron Young, director of the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden, said the lion-tailed macaque monkeys will be on "permanent loan" to the National Center for Retired Research Primates in Helotes, Texas.

On Oct. 3, one of the monkeys bit a child who crossed barriers at the zoo and stuck a hand in the monkey exhibit. All six monkeys in the exhibit later tested positive for the herpes B simian virus. If transmitted to a human, it can cause encephalitis.

The Dallas Morning News
November 27, 1999, Saturday THIRD EDITION
Capuchin caper;

Couple wants Euless to amend law so they can keep their pet monkey

BY: Tiara M. Ellis

EULESS - When Teresa Luque took Precious along on the search for her lost parrot, she didn't expect the city's animal control officials to tell her she couldn't keep her beloved pet.

Oh, she could keep the parrot. But Precious, a baby monkey, is classified by city ordinance as an exotic animal and is therefore an illegal pet in Euless.

Mrs. Luque and her husband, Terry, are asking the city to amend the regulations so they can keep the capuchin.

"She's our baby," Mrs. Luque said while showing off photographs of the 7-month-old primate before a City Council meeting Tuesday. "We've raised her, and she is our child."

The council made no immediate decision but considered arguments on both sides. Randy Byers, the city's director of public works, said the ban was established to protect people from the diseases and aggressive nature of many exotic animals.

"Any time we talk about pets, it becomes a very emotional issue," Mr. Byers said.

"But studies show that when monkeys enter their adolescent years, they become more aggressive. Sort of like a teenage boy," Mr. Byers joked.

The Luques said capuchins are no danger to Euless residents.

Mr. Luque said monkeys have been used to assist people who have multiple sclerosis or other movement-hindering diseases.

"If the United States government thought [monkeys] were a danger, they would not have backed this program," he said.

"This shows that not all primates are a threat to mankind or a threat to neighbors," said Mr. Luque. "It shows that there are certain monkeys that, in the eyes of the government and the eyes of the doctors, are not a threat."

The Luques acknowledged that Precious has bitten one person. A couple of weeks after animal control officials informed Mrs. Luque that monkeys were not permitted in the city, Precious bit an elderly woman who had invited the couple to her home so her grandchildren could see the monkey, Mr. Luque said.

Mrs. Luque said the woman's oxygen mouthpiece scared Precious and incited her to bite the woman. The Luques said Precious has had all of the shots required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Luques and Mr. Byers presented opposing information on whether monkeys could spread disease.

Mr. Byers said the sources cited by Mr. Luque either breed monkeys or have some other self-serving interest in the issue. The public works director said the information he gathered came from doctors and veterinarians who would gain nothing by the way they described monkeys.

Mr. Byers added that the city had to deal with a similar case almost a year ago. A resident had a spider monkey that was taken to an elementary school, where it bit a child. That resident lived in an apartment and chose to relocate, said Mr. Byers.

The Luques bought their home in Euless earlier this year and want to stay with their monkey, said Mr. Luque. "We like this area," he said. "We like our neighbors. We want Precious to live here with us."

Precious lives in her own room in the Luques' home. She even has her own toys and outfits.

"We don't want to move. But if we can't stay here with Precious, we'll have to move to Arlington, Irving or Colleyville," Mrs. Luque said, indicating three of the surrounding cities that allow certain monkeys within their city limits.

Euless council members may decide the issue as early as Dec. 14.

Fort Worth Star Telegram
November 27, 1999, Saturday FINAL EDITION

Monkeyshines Euless officials face a tough decision about a pet primate.

You'd have to be a pretty hard-hearted person not to have a lot of sympathy for Teresa and Terry Luque. All the Euless residents want is permission from the city to keep Precious, a 7-month-old capuchin monkey, in their home. Sympathy, of course. But change the city ordinance that bans primates as pets in Euless? No.

Precious is oh-so-cute. She's a tiny thing that drinks baby formula from a bottle. She plays with her toys and even wears earrings and dresses. The Luques say that she poses no more of hazard than a dog or a cat.

But city animal-control officials say otherwise. They say that monkeys can pose health and safety problems for the rest of the community, that they can be aggressive and that they shouldn't be allowed as pets.

And some animal experts agree. Courtney Grafa, a spokeswoman at the Fort Worth Zoo, says that primates just don't make good pets because they are unpredictable in their behavior and prefer outdoor areas where they can move and swing.

Euless officials discovered that Precious was in town after she bit an elderly woman. The Luques point out that cats and dogs bite, too.

Of the communities near Euless, only Irving and Arlington allow monkeys as pets. The Luques say that they will move out of town if they can't keep Precious in their Euless home.

City Council members, who have been briefed on the Precious problem, face a hard-hearted decision. But they should not change their monkey ordinance.

Show: 20/20 Date: November 17, 1999
CO-HOSTS: Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson
DIANE SAWYER: Tonight, 20/20 exposes a frightening practice. Monkeys, some infected with dangerous viruses, released by research labs and zoos, and sold by free-wheeling dealers as harmless pets.
Mr. RICHARD FARINATO: People think of them as babies in fur coats. And they're anything but.
SAWYER: Exposure to an infected monkey killed this 22-year-old lab worker in just six weeks. The same breed, kept as a pet, attacked this little girl when its owner brought the monkey to a campground.
Ms. ASHLEE BOLWAR: Then the monkey jumped on my leg and just bit me.
SAWYER: Is a pet owner in your neighborhood harboring a cute little killer?
Chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross uncovers a disturbing trade in potentially dangerous animals, Monkey Business.
MONKEY BUSINESS
DIANE SAWYER: Good evening, and welcome to 20/20 WEDNESDAY. Charlie and I are so happy to have you joining us tonight. We're going to begin with a potential source of disease which could be moving into your neighborhood, and we suspect it's one you've never heard about before. More and more people are getting monkeys as pets, and, in most cases, it's perfectly legal to buy a monkey or to keep one at home.
CHARLES GIBSON: But the question is, where do these exotic pets come from? As you're about to see, our chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross has uncovered the surprising and disturbing source of a growing number of pet monkeys and what might be a very real danger behind those big, brown eyes.
Unidentified Woman #1: I've always wanted a monkey, ever since I was a little girl.
Unidentified Woman #2: They do everything with us. They go away with us.
Unidentified Woman #3: Can't help but love 'em. Just like having a little baby.
Unidentified Woman #4: I can't imagine somebody being without a monkey.
Mr. RICHARD FARINATO: They are dressed up. They are made into little human beings. People think of them as babies in fur coats, and they are anything but.
BRIAN ROSS reporting: (Voiceover) Richard Farinato loves animals, but what he doesn't love, as a former zoo curator and now working for the Humane Society of the United States, is what he says is going on in the monkey trade, the business of monkeys. A booming business, as 20/20 found in a four-month undercover investigation.
(Richard Farinato working)
Unidentified Man #1: Usually, I get $1,500 for the males, if they specify female, $1,800.
ROSS: (Voiceover) With potentially infected monkeys, often right out of the country's research labs and zoos, ending up in the hands of dealers like this man in Tennessee, who offer them as pets for thousands of dollars.
(Dean Olinger in shop)
Mr. DEAN OLINGER: Deposits are nonrefundable.
ROSS: (Voiceover) With scant attention paid to health risks and few laws to stop it.
(Olinger in office)
Mr. FARINATO: Every time you touch that animal, take the animal out on a leash, hold the monkey in your arm, show him to the kid next door, this is dangerous stuff, whether it's physical injury or whether it's disease transmission.
ROSS: (Voiceover) Yet they are often advertised as diaper-wearing and bottle-fed, perfect for couples who want a new baby.
(Monkeys in diapers; monkeys with pacifiers)
Unidentified Woman #5: He's part of our family. He's not really a pet.
Unidentified Woman #6: This is my late-life child.
ROSS: (Voiceover) Including, incredibly, the species of monkey known as the macaque, like these two, all possible carriers of a fast-moving and usually fatal virus called herpes B. It is the very kind of monkey that led to the death two years ago of a 22-year-old researcher at Emory University, Beth Griffin, who died just six weeks after she was splashed in the eye with body fluid from a macaque. In research labs, particularly since Beth Griffin's death, anyone getting anywhere near macaques is trained to wear extensive protective clothing and plastic face shields.
(Monkeys; photo of Beth Griffin; research laboratory; monkeys in laboratory cages)
Unidentified Offscreen Voice: (From research lab training video) Treat all macaques as if they were herpes B-positive.
ROSS: (Voiceover) None of those precautions could be seen at this picnic thrown by monkey owners in Florida, where people were kissing and sharing drinks with their macaques. These pet owners say their macaques have tested virus-free, but experts warn the virus can appear at anytime, even in monkeys once tested tested as virus-free.
(Monkey picnic)
Unidentified Man #2: No matter how you treat them, they will always turn to you for affection and love. It's something I guess every human wants to have throughout their entire life.
ROSS: (Voiceover) To date, there have been 29 known deaths from macaques and herpes B, all involving laboratory workers, and scientists at the Centers for Disease Control say the growing trade in macaques as pets in the last few years constitutes an emerging public health threat.
(Monkeys at picnic; CDC statement)
Dr. MIRA LESLIE: Macaques, actually, are the most common monkey that's sold in Arizona and probably throughout the United States. They're very commonly bred and sold in the pet trade.
ROSS: (Voiceover) Dr. Mira Leslie, the state veterinarian in Arizona, has spent the last three years pushing for a law to get pet monkeys banned altogether because of so many close calls.
(Dr. Mira Leslie working)
Dr. LESLIE: There are all kinds of different public locations where people have been bitten, a busy shopping mall at Christmas, a health club, a campground.
ROSS: (Voiceover) Almost half of the victims were children, the most recent, 8-year-old Ashlee Bolwar, bitten this summer by a pigtail macaque whose owner brought it to a popular state campground.
(Ashlee Bolwar in swiming pool)
Ms. ASHLEY BOLWAR: We were looking for crawdads, and we were just playing around, looking for them. And then the monkey jumped on my leg and just bit me.
ROSS: (Voiceover) Ashlee's parents, Karen and Andy Bolwar, first thought of rabies. But what the state vet told th