Animal abuser gives monkey cocaine and flushes it down the toilet
A British woman kept a small monkey as a pet, gave it cocaine, and flushed it down the toilet. She was sentenced to a prison term.
According to a British newspaper, Vicki Holland is said to have kept the monkey Milly as a pet.
Cruel videos used as evidence
The animal is reported to have been fed sausages, kebab, or burgers. The woman allegedly made cruel videos of the animal on repeated occasions. In one, she filmed herself laughing as Milly was harassed by a dog. In another, the 38-year-old is said to have attempted to make the monkey snort cocaine.
Another shows the distressing scene in the bathroom: “Holland screamed, swore and laughed, and then there is a moment when the toilet is flushed. The petrified animal desperately tries to cling to the rim of the toilet bowl”, reports Sophie Daniels from the animal welfare organisation RSPCA. She and her colleagues were forwarded the footage by police. The investigators had found the videos during a house search. Vicki Holland had been under investigation for drug-related offences.
Lifetime ban on keeping animals
The woman from Newport was handed a lifetime ban on keeping animals and a 12-week suspended prison sentence after causing unnecessary psychological suffering to a pygmy marmoset through her abusive behaviour. Holland must also pay £420 in costs and a £128 victim surcharge.
The RSPCA was alerted to the treatment of the monkey after Gwent Police found videos on Holland’s phone.
Following the execution of a search warrant at the property in Newport, Holland told the RSPCA that she had sold the pygmy marmoset a week earlier. The marmoset was subsequently found at another address and taken into the care of the RSPCA, before being transferred to the primate experts at Monkey World in Dorset for further and appropriate care.
Primates do not belong in the living room
Marmosets are by far the most common primates kept as pets. However, animal welfare organizations are strongly opposed to keeping primates as pets, because it is so difficult to meet their complex needs in a domestic environment.
Sadly, there are recurring cases of primates kept locked in birdcages, fed fast food and sugary drinks, denied the company of their own kind, and suffering from illness due to poor care.
It is suspected that many of them are suffering behind closed doors, because people do not know how to properly care for these animals .
