Thanks to Wes for posting the info. I know the Articles were long, and he had told me he was reluctant to publish the first one since it was so long. He also told me that he thought with the second article, bothe deserved posting. I think that anyone interested in this sort of thing will forgive the length of the articles. These were feature articles in their respective editions.

In the second article there were a few paragraphs about a Wisconsin woman and her "pet" monkey. I know this woman and I would like to say a few things that the article failed to mention. This woman was a licensed veterinary technician, and held all the appropriate permits from the state of Wisconsin to keep a variety of exotic animals. Her home was subject to surprise inspections and she passed them all. She had spent several months in Japan studying the Japanese Macaques with an accredited scientist, funded, I believe, by the National Geographic Society. After she had left the project, the scientist (I can't recall his name) contacted her and informed her that he had a baby macaque that was abandoned by its mother. As no one had the time to care for the animal he suggested that she adopt it. She told me that she was reluctant at first because she knew what it would involve but eventually she relented and took possesion of the animal. She was very vocal when people brought up the idea of keeping monkeys as pets. She was vary opposed and made her feelings known. As she was speaking from experience her opinions carried a quite a bit of weight. The incident that was written about was an unfortunate one, and unfortunatly, the way it was portrayed made it sound like she was just another irresponsible pet owner. the monkey was kept in a large enclosed porch (about 8X16 from what I could gather) and it had bars on the window. The monkey escaped by pulling the wall board off the inside of the porch, removing the insulation, and popping the siding loose off the outside of the porch. Never underestimate the strength of a monkey. So, in closing I would just like to say that although the article made the woman out to be just another bad pet owner, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Steve Schindler

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