Justin Bieber’s People Tells Monkey Shelter They Want Mally Back, Singer Gets Pet Extension
Justin Bieber was given just four weeks by Munich customs officials to claim the capuchin monkey that was quarantined last month when the teen flew from LA to Munich for a concert without proper paperwork for his pet.
The Canadian teen’s management have since contacted German authorities and the animal shelter looking after Mally the monkey, so named after the producer who gave the baby primate to the pop star for his 19th birthday last month.
Bieber, who plays Strasbourg, France tonight, is still locked into a grueling tour and has four months to go until the last date.
Online schedules indicate the final concert is August 10 in Atlanta.
Karl Heinz Joachim, 64, director of the animal shelter where Mally is currently being quarantined and cared for, told Mail Online:
“Justin Bieber has won an extension because the four week limit on confiscated animals only applies if the owner does not get in touch.”
“His management team had been in touch and indicated that they want the monkey back which means they now have as much time as they need to get the paperwork ready.”
“We’ll appeal to the star to do the decent thing and let the monkey be free for adoption.There are a great many suitable places that have offered to take Mally and integrate him with their own capuchin monkeys where he would be much more happy with his own kind. A baby monkey is not something suitable to be on a world tour even if he is travelling by private jet.”
Shelter officials previously confirmed that Mally, who is now 15-weeks-old, was taken away from his mother at just nine weeks. Animal welfare experts agree this is far too young, and, that in addition to the quarantining, this “traumatized” the monkey in his first few days at the shelter.
The shelter said the monkey initially refused to eat unless it was given a cuddly toy to play with and has been repeatedly calling out for other members of his family group although he is now eating normally.
Backing up Joachim’s view that the monkey should not be returned to Bieber, a number of animal welfare groups also spoke out last week. Debbie Leahy, of the Humane Society of the United States, said:
“When somebody like Justin Bieber is irresponsible and goes out and gets a pet monkey he sets a very bad example … He seems to be a little bit out of control.”
Leahy also said no primate species should ever be kept as a pet and that it was critical that they stayed with their own kind for their psychological well-being especially as they got older and become more aggressive.
More anger came from the German Animal Protection Society, who said Bieber shouldn’t be allowed to take his monkey back for the sake of the pet’s welfare.
The group’s president, Thomas Schroeder, said in a statement that the teen idol should publicly apologize on Twitter for bringing Mally into Germany without the proper paperwork.
Despite the shelter and animal welfare groups’ fury, Bieber and his management team will be given the time they need to organize the collection of the monkey. However, for shelter boss Joachim, this is still not good enough.
The director believes that if it takes months to sort out the paperwork it will be Mally who suffers mentally as it will spend all its time in a cage. As a last resort, he said that if Bieber refused to allow the monkey to be adopted by appropriate organizations, the Bavarian environment ministry would have the final word.
As yet, the Ministry has so made no comment on the Bieber or his monkey troubles.
The embattled singer has rarely been out of recent headlines in the past month after a series of dramatic incidents on his Believe world tour and recent battery allegations.
[Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]
