Months ago, shoppers found a monkey named Darwin wandering in an IKEA parking lot in Toronto. Canadian officials placed the animal in Toronto Animal Services’ care. Now Darwin’s owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, wants her monkey back. She contends that she was was tricked into surrendering the animal. (Those wily Canadian bureaucrats!)
It’s a hard case: I don’t think he had the best life in her care, and she seems self-absorbed (kinda nutty, really), but government would be foolish to aim for perfection from others when it doesn’t deliver anything close to that in return. The monkey likely does deserve better, but she’s promised to relocate to a Canadian town that allows pet monkeys (some do, some don’t).
I’d say she gets Darwin back, on the condition that she moves to a town that allows pet monkeys, and that she meets specified minimum standards of care (food, space, exercise). Not ideal, but then ideal’s often an unrealistic standard. (Anderson Cooper, in the video embedded below about Darwin’s experiences, hopes she doesn’t get him back. Most readers will probably agree with his view.)
What do you think?
she’s not monkey-worthy
The owner should know that it’s irresponsible to raise a monkey in her house. She’s also wrong to think that a shearling coat is fashionable. Darwin looks ridiculous. 😉
odds are the monkey should be taking care of the “owner” not the other way around
isn’t he supposed to be in a space suit?
That’s this monkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Baker ) or this one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_the_Monkey ).