Music
Animal rights group begs Bieber not to get another monkey
by Richard Howard
February 19, 2016
The North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance aren't happy with his pet care.
Remember that time Justin Bieber went all Wacko Jacko on us and got himself a pet monkey? And then, when the primate was confiscated in Germany due to a lack of paperwork, he told the monkey to get bent and jetted off to continue his tour?
It doesn’t really seem that the Biebs is cut out for that type of pet ownership. Which is why animal lovers were more than a little perturbed at his plans to once again be the proud owner of a monkey, with the following quote from his GQ interview:
“Yeah, one day. Just gotta make sure I got a house and it stays in the fucking house. I’m not gonna bring him to Germany or travel with it anymore. People are always like, ‘Why did you get a monkey?’ If you could get a monkey, well, you would get a fucking monkey, too! Monkeys are awesome.
While we do agree that monkeys are indeed “awesome,” we’d have to say that dragging one around the world or locking it away in your home (palatial as it may be) is not. According to Spin, the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance agrees, and directed the following statement – which combined the educational tone you’d expect from an animal rights group with that of an exasperated parent – at Bieber:
“Please do not repeat this foolish endeavour. It is simply not possible to fulfill the unique needs of your monkey within a private home.”
Luckily for hapless monkeys everywhere, it’s unlikely the pop star will be able to procure another one without getting into hot water. Turns out it’s illegal to own a primate in California, much less fly one around the world without papers. But what about the original nine-week-old monkey that Bieber left in Germany? Well, OG Mally (apparently, Bieber super-imaginatively named him after the guy who gifted the monkey, producer Jamal “Mally Mall” Rashid) is actually doing great.
He lives at the Serengeti Safari Park north of Berlin, and according to keeper Jennifer Niewöhner, has now learned how to ‘be a monkey.’ Hopefully, the primate formally known as OG Mally has warned his new buddies to run and hide if they ever see an obnoxious chrome electric sports car ominously cruising through the park.
