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Sunday, September 9
Courtesy of MSN
 
A Long-Tailed Macaque (© Martin Harvey/Getty Images)
 
 
People insist on keeping illegal exotic pets, and illegal exotic pets keep inflicting severe injury on said people. That inevitable cycle is expedited, perhaps, when you feed your poor monkey a steady diet of Frosted Flakes and juice. A woman in Paso Robles, Calif., found out the hard way when her Javan macaque — a monkey with a dog-like bite — ripped into her arm and fingers. The monkey is being held for 60 days at an animal conservatory, and is being fed a proper diet of fleshy fruits.
 
 
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Illegal monkey living on Frosted Flakes bites woman

Photo: A female macaque keeps a stern eye on her infant while socializing with other females. Credit: Bill Morris / Animal Planet.

A Javan macaque monkey being kept as a pet and living on a diet that included Frosted Flakes and juice has been quarantined after it bit a Paso Robles woman multiple times on the hand and arm.

The monkey, which authorities said was being kept illegally as a pet, attacked the woman Aug. 29, inflicting several severe bites to her arm and fingers.

The hospital where the woman was treated reported the incident to San Luis Obispo County Division of Animal Services on Sept. 5, Animal Services Manager Eric Anderson said.

“This kind of animal is never meant to be kept domestically. It is illegal," Anderson said. "It lived on a diet including Frosted Flakes and juice. We strongly discourage the keeping of any such animal."

He added: "And that is entirely the wrong kind of diet.”

The monkey is now quarantined for 60 days at Zoo to You, a conservation group that handles rescued animals.

Anderson said the California Department of Fish and Game is investigation and has the power to seek charges against the monkey's owner for unlawful possession of a restricted species.

The macaque delivers a dog-like bite and can do severe damage, he said.

-- Richard Winton