A Dallas-area influencer spider monkey was suffering from an illness caused by malnutrition when police took him from his owner over the weekend, officials said.
The monkey, named Jorgie Boy, was taken from his owner, Brandi Botello, Saturday morning after Dallas police officers responded to a single-vehicle crash. The driver was arrested for driving under the influence, the police said in a statement.
Police did not identify the driver in the statement. Botello told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that she was charged with DWI, but claimed she was not driving. She said she was drunk at the time of the crash and passed out in the passenger seat while holding the nearly three-year-old spider monkey.
Brandi Botello.
“I didn’t even know what was going on. I slept through the car accident. I didn’t even know we had an accident,” she told the station. “I wasn’t driving.”
She said she got into the driver’s seat after the crash.
“I jumped into the driver’s seat. I didn’t know we had crashed in front of the police station. When I turned around, there was a cop standing there and he tried to charge me with driving, but I wasn’t driving,” she said, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth .
Botello told the station that the driver was a male acquaintance and that he was charged with public intoxication.
Neither the people nor the monkey in the car were seriously injured, police said.
Because Botello lives in Irving, a neighboring suburb, the monkey was taken to the Irving Animal Control Department, Dallas police said.
Irving police said Thursday that Jorgie Boy had been diagnosed with rickets, which they describe as “a bone disease caused by inadequate nutrition.” Police said he is receiving care at “an undisclosed wildlife refuge in Texas.”
The Dallas Morning News reported that the sanctuary, identified as Funky Monkey Ranch, said Jorgie Boy weighed 6 pounds, less than half that of an average spider monkey, and that he had minor fractures in his bones and elevated liver and pancreas values.
The owner of the sanctuary said the monkey would not be returned to its previous owner, the Morning News reported.
Funky Monkey Ranch did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News seeking to confirm the details reported by the Morning News.
It is legal in Texas to own certain exotic animals, including monkeys, with permits, but the city of Irving prohibits the ownership of wild animals.
Botello, who has 43,000 Instagram followers, reposted followers’ stories with the hashtag “#FreeJorgieBoy.”
On Instagram, Botello wrote “this ugly depressing lonely feeling I have is the worst” but said she “won’t stop trying!”
“He means more to me than anything in this world. I won’t let one little mistake break me. I’m willing to change anything and everything for him,” she wrote.
“Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is really something,” Botello continued. “I’ve admitted it… I know I’m a good mother… we all know that!”
Jorgie Boy has an online presence of his own, including an Instagram account with nearly 6,000 followers featuring photos of him wearing pajamas, bathing and dressing up with Botello, who has his name tattooed on her back.
Jorgie Boy’s story follows that of Peanut, an Instagram-famous squirrel who was seized and euthanized by authorities after officials received reports that Peanut’s owner was illegally keeping wild animals in his home.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
