An influencer is fighting to get his Internet-famous monkey, Jorgie Boy, back — even after the uninvited pet was found deathly ill and malnourished in a car accident where his owner says She had become unconscious while intoxicated.
Brandi Botello, 29, had her 3-year-old spider monkey with her over the weekend when they were in a car accident in Dallas. Confirmed by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth,
The tattooed influencer was charged with drunk driving – but she insisted she was passed out in the passenger seat and fell asleep during the crash, blaming a “very drunk” friend.
Despite those legal troubles, Botello says she’s most troubled by losing Georgie Boy, the pet monkey of whom she regularly posts photos in outfits and strange locations — even though she has him at home in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Not allowed to keep, he admitted.
However, according to the Funky Monkey Ranch Sanctuary, where Jorgie Boy was taken for treatment, his bones were broken and he weighed only 6 pounds — less than half the average weight of a spider monkey.
According to officials, he also had rickets, a bone disease caused by inadequate nutrition, as well as poor liver and pancreas function. Told the Dallas Morning News.
Funky Monkey Ranch owner Dwan Johns released disturbing details as evidence that the sick animal should not be returned to the influencer despite his appeals.
“Primates are not pets,” Johns said. “People think monkeys are funny and cute, and they treat them like stuff.”
Nevertheless, Botello continued to beg for Georgie Boy’s return – using the hashtag #FreeJorgieBoy online – insisting that she is a “good mother” to him despite his condition and his recent arrest.
“I love her. I groom her every day. I change her diapers, bathe her,” Botello told the local NBC affiliate. “I just want her home. I don’t think she needs a home. Except he is more than a monkey to me, he is like my child.”
She vowed to do “anything and everything” to make things right, while also denying that she was driving during the crash.
“I didn’t even know what was happening. I fell asleep during a car accident. I didn’t even know we’d been in an accident,” Botello told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth“I wasn’t driving.”
Instead, she says that a male friend – who was “very drunk” – was driving, and that she merely “climbed into the driver’s seat” after the accident, without explaining why.
“I didn’t know that we crashed in front of the police station. When I turned, there was a policeman there and he was trying to accuse me of driving, but I was not driving,” she said.
Neither Botella nor Georgie Boy were injured in the accident, and local news media were unable to confirm the name of the drunk friend the influencer was accused of being the real DUI driver.
Botello denied that her pet was malnourished or sick – attributing his condition to separation anxiety – as she continued to fight for his return.
“He means more to me than anything in this world. I won’t let one small mistake break me, I’m willing to change anything and everything for him,” she wrote to her followers.
Botello added, “It’s a real thing to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “I’m up for it… I know I’m a good mom… we all know that!” He said.
This event comes just a few weeks later Euthanasia of P’Nut the Squirrel in New YorkWhose owners were widely accused of illegally housing the beloved animal.
(TagstoTranslate)US News(T)Car Accidents(T)Dallas(T)DWI(T)Monkey(T)Texas
