Palm Valley Animal Center (PVAC) is in possession of a snow monkey after an owner surrendered its exotic pet.
Palm Valley Animal Center (PVAC) is in possession of a snow monkey after an owner surrendered its exotic pet.
The primate bit a 2-year-old boy’s finger Monday, according to Deputy Jena Palacios Pacheco, Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. The boy was flown to a San Antonio hospital for treatment and his condition is unknown at this time.
Following the incident, the owner surrendered Charlie, his male Japanese macaque, to Hidalgo County Animal Control, which later transferred the monkey to the animal shelter where it was placed in quarantine.
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, a wildlife sanctuary in Kendalia, Texas, agreed Thursday to house Charlie during the state’s mandatory 30-day quarantine at no cost to the county.
The sanctuary will also cover the costs of transporting Charlie from PVAC to the Hill County sanctuary.
During the quarantine, Charlie will be observed for rabies and tested for further diseases.
“… this is yet another incident in a long and ugly history of wild animals being subjected to the horrors of wild animal ‘pet’ trade … No wild animal should be forced to live in a cage in someone’s house and endure such an unnatural life. And there was a calamity in this case, a child was severely injured,” WRR Founder and President Lynn Cuny wrote in a Facebook post.
In Texas, a permit is required to keep a larger primate as a pet, but permits are not required to own smaller monkeys such as Charlie.
Catie Jarl, a representative of the Humane Society of the United States, said her organization has been lobbying Texas legislators for the past three sessions to amend current pet ownership laws.
“We hope that Charlie’s story will resonate with many of those lawmakers,” Jarl said. “We believe that these animals should not be kept as pets for a whole host of reasons and today (Thursday) we certainly got a full-blown case study in many of them.”
