Escaped chimpanzee causes a ruckus

[proud2BlibKansan]

A 300-pound chimpanzee escaped from its owner Tuesday afternoon and ran rampant through a Kansas City neighborhood, scaring walkers, pounding on passing cars and breaking a police car’s windshield.

The 21-year-old ape, named Sueko, also pointed and laughed at residents and flipped off an animal control officer near 78th Street and Indiana Avenue, witnesses said.

About 40 minutes and one tranquilizer dart later, Sueko meandered into a cage in her owner’s van. The owner drove her — with a police escort — to Monkey Island, a primate sanctuary in Greenwood where she will stay while the city’s legal department weighs its option.

City officials would like to avoid returning the chimp to her owner, Mark Archigo, who has been in and out of legal trouble over Sueko since 1995.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/19/2332892/escaped-chimpanzee-causes-a-ruckus.html#ixzz12wWbGiNp

[butterfly77]

1. Damn he's huge..

is that pic for real?

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Yes it's from the dash cam

You can see the video at the link.

[texastoast]

2. Oh, it's a real chimp

I thought it was, well, you know who.

[JSK]

13. Don't insult the chimp like that! n/t

[Generic Other]

30. me too!

[valerief]

3. Chimps, pit bulls, they'll all kill you if given the chance. I'm surprised owning

dangerous animals isn't mandatory in the US now. Everything is bass-ackwards here.

War is peace.
Ignorance is strength.

[Sweet Charming Dem]

29. Did you seriously compare a chimp with a pit bull?

Wow.

My pit bull nurses kittens. Clearly, she's just waiting for her chance to kill.

[Terra Alta]

4. Chimps are NOT pets

They are very dangerous animals that can turn on people with no warning. It should be illegal to own such dangerous animals as pets.

[EFerrari]

7. It should be illegal to hold them singly because they're very social animals.

It's basically like kidnapping a person from their family and holding them in a cage forever. Disgusting.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. We had friends in college who had a pet monkey

Worst pet ever. He stank to high heaven. They had to keep their house at 85 degrees for the monkey. So that made him and the house stink even worse. He would jump all over the place and get into stuff. One time he took my purse and put it in his cage and wouldn't let anyone get it out. Then he started throwing stuff from my purse all over the room. He also liked pot and would eat joints and roaches out of the ash tray and get high. That made him even more obnoxious.

I seriously do not understand why anyone thinks this is a good pet.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. its the hands. You know a cat would make just as much trouble if it had hands

[Mariana]

17. Some of them make plenty of trouble without benefit of hands!

But cats don't smell bad. Big point in their favor. :)

[Bobbieo]

15. I, the animal lover in our neighborhood, turned down the offer of a free monkey -

its favorite trick was to get on a shoulder and pee. No Thanks!

[EFerrari]

26. I was in love with monkeys for years and would have given anything

to "have" one. But it would have cruel and crazy. I don't know why people do things like that.

[Terra Alta]

11. After being locked in a cage for so long

I don't blame the chimp for escaping. I really hope he isn't returned to his owner and is instead sent somewhere where he will be allowed to roam freely, and interact with other chimps.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. The zoo is going to take her. Here is a better video:

http://www.kmbc.com/news/25452414/detail.html

[Mariana]

23. I wonder if they can form fulfilling relationships with humans?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not AT ALL in favor of keeping apes as pets - they're very dangerous animals and that alone is a good enough reason not to do so. I'm just curious if it's possible that they can be happy living with people instead of other apes.

Dogs are very social animals but it's not cruel to keep a single dog as long as it can spend plenty of time with its person or people. Often even another pet of a different species will do just fine - lots of people have a dog and a cat who are best buddies. The dogs' social needs are satisfied by their relationships with human beings (and/or cats, etc.)

It IS cruel to force a dog to spend most of its time all alone. A dog in that situation will be miserable. The same would certainly be true with an ape.

[EFerrari]

25. It's possible but not optimum.

In the wild, chimps have not only their own families but their extended group.

[HuckleB]

18. It is illegal to own a chimp in KC, apparently.

The owner is in deep.

[Owl]

21. Agreed.

[Initech]

5. Please tell me there's a picture of the ape giving the finger somewhere:

Oh wait there is:

[Mnemosyne]

6. I expected a photo of *. n/t

[stevedeshazer]

9. I'd probably flip out, too.

Sueko obviously understands the situation.

She gets it.

[Terra Alta]

12. I would too.

What the owner did was animal abuse.

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. Video of Sueko on the loose at this link

http://www.mediaite.com/online/this-exists-300-pound-pet-chimp-gets-loose-runs-amok-and-flips-off-a-cop/

[rug]

20. This is the down side of term limits.

[applegrove]

22. Lucky nobody was hurt. An adult chimpanzee can pull the arms off a human.

[Bonobo]

24. 'Sueko' means 'youngest child" in Japanese.

I guess he had a temper tantrum.

[HEyHEY]

27. "Monkey Island" What the fuck is going on down in Kansas?

[Swamp Rat]

28. Lock up Mark Archigo in a cage.

It's where he belongs.