Ikea monkey to stay at primate sanctuary while ‘mom’ fights for his return
Posted Feb 1, 2013 04:00:03 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OSHAWA, Ont. – An Ontario judge has ruled Darwin the Ikea monkey will stay at a primate sanctuary while a court battle is fought to decide his ownership.
Yasmin Nakhuda is trying to get the monkey back after he escaped from her car and was found wandering in an Ikea parking lot dressed in a shearling coat.
Darwin was sent to the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont. after he was picked up by Toronto Animal Services.
Nakhuda had argued she was tricked into signing over Darwin to animal services and that a long separation during a trial over his custody will damage her bond with the little primate.
The primate sanctuary said Nakhuda is unfit to care for him, raising unproven allegations that she “strangled” the monkey, and didn’t change his diapers for several days.
Its lawyer also argued that a wild animal is no longer the property of a human if it escapes and returns to the wild, as Darwin did at Ikea.
