[URBAN NOTE] "Ikea monkey Darwin ordered to stay at sanctuary, owner refuses to visit"

[rfmcdonald]

A follow-up to the story of Darwin, the former pet Japanese macaque liberated at IKEA, courtesy of the Toronto Star.

Darwin, the monkey that shot to worldwide fame this month when it was found wandering an Ikea parking lot wearing a faux shearling coat, will not be going home with his owner for the holidays.

Justice Michael Brown ruled Friday morning that the monkey must stay at the sanctuary where it is now being held until at least mid-January.

Brown also denied a request for weekend visitation away from the sanctuary for the monkey’s owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, but said she could visit him there.

For her part, Nakhuda said she would not visit Darwin at the sanctuary, fearing that such a visit would only heap more stress on the pint-sized pet.

“How would you feel to see your child in a cage and be with him outside the cage?” said Nakhuda’s husband, who would identify himself only as “Sam,” outside the court.

Sam told reporters that having Nakhuda visit the sanctuary would be “damaging to Darwin. I don’t know if human beings are capable of understanding this. I don’t know if the judge is capable of understanding this,” he said.

[. . .]

She has rented a cottage in Kawartha Lakes, the closest township to the GTA that doesn’t prohibit monkey ownership. Spurred by that news, officials there are rushing to enact a bylaw to ban exotic animals.