Do you remember the Ikea monkey named Darwin? Well, his former owner has reportedly purchased two new monkeys.
Darwin the monkey gained worldwide fame in December 2012 when he was seen wandering around an Ikea parking lot in Toronto dressed in a tiny shearling coat.
Animal services seized the monkey shortly after the incident, as Toronto bylaws prohibit the ownership of primates. He has since lived at the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont.
Owner Yasmin Nakhuda pursued a lawsuit in hopes to regain custody of her pet, but eventually lost the appeal.
Now, according to an announcement on a Facebook group supporting her, she has purchased a new pair of snow Japanese macaque monkeys – the same breed as Darwin.
The two monkeys -- named Sumo and Tibet -- are both six-years-old.
Nakhuda has also moved to the Kawartha region, which is one of the regions in Ontario that don’t have bylaws against owning monkeys.
Meanwhile, Animal Justice Canada used the news to call Tuesday for province-wide laws regulating exotic pets.
“Ontario urgently needs consistent, province-wide laws for the keeping and sale of exotic pets,” Camille Labchuk, director of legal advocacy for Animal Justice Canada, said in a news statement. “Municipalities have been forced to pick up the slack, and the result is an inconsistent patchwork of bylaws that allows private pet collectors to keep primates and other dangerous animals in many areas. Consistent, province-wide rules are the only way to protect public safety and animal welfare.”
The group says while veterinary evidence strongly suggests that primates don’t make suitable pets, municipalities in Ontario allow these “dangerous animals” to be kept without a license.
