Court hears of monkey business

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This article was published 01/06/2013 (4710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OSHAWA, Ont. — There was no authority under a Toronto bylaw for animal services officers to keep the IKEA monkey from its owner when she came looking for him, court heard Friday.

Animal services supervisor Carl Bandow testified Friday at a trial surrounding the ongoing saga of Darwin, the Japanese snow monkey found wandering an IKEA parking lot in December wearing a little faux-shearling coat.

Toronto Animal Services officers scooped up the monkey at IKEA, where Darwin had escaped the locked crate inside the locked car where owner Yasmin Nakhuda had left him. Nakhuda showed up at animal services soon after, frantically looking to get her monkey back.

Instead, by the end of her visit to animal services, Nakhuda had signed a form that transferred ownership of the monkey and he was soon sent to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont., where he has resided ever since.

Nakhuda hadn’t realized by signing the form she was relinquishing her ownership of Darwin, she testified Friday. She wept as she described how she felt she had no choice but to sign the form she thought would allow animal services to take Darwin for medical tests.

The animal services officer said if she signed the surrender form he would let her see Darwin, she testified.

“I was not going to walk out without at least making sure he was OK, Mr. Toyne. Why don’t you understand that?” she said under cross-examination by Kevin Toyne, the lawyer for the primate sanctuary.

“He has anxiety disorders… I had no choice, Mr. Toyne. I needed to see him. I had to see him.”

‘I was not going to walk out without at least making sure he was OK, Mr. Toyne. Why don’t you understand that?’

— Yasmin Nakhuda, on the form she didn’t understand transferred ownership of the monkey, Darwin, to the sanctuary and the duress she felt

Bandow was not at the animal services office that day, but as the supervisor on call he received a phone call from one of the officers asking what he should do about a monkey that had been found at IKEA.

Even though it is illegal to own a monkey in Toronto, animal services officers have no power under a city bylaw to detain such an animal if the owner comes to claim it, Bandow testified. Prompted by this case, the city is looking at revisions to that bylaw.

Bandow knew he had no authority to order the monkey detained at animal services, he testified, but he didn’t want to immediately release Darwin as he had concerns the monkey posed a threat to public safety.

He told the officer over the phone to see if Nakhuda would give up the monkey on her own.

— The Canadian Press