Abused: Mikey the baby marmoset was sold to a pensioner but then found to have seven fractures and bone disease. He was subsequently put down by a vet to spare him further sufferingA couple who sold a monkey which had seven separate bone fractures to a pensioner for £650 have been ordered to pay nearly £6,000 costs to the RSPCA and banned from keeping animals for life.
Lee Powell, 50, and Julie Ann Jones, 41, were found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a four-and-a-half-month-old marmoset monkey named Mikey.
A two-day trial at Dudley Magistrates' Court heard that the monkey had to be put down by a vet after its injuries were discovered.
Julie Ann Jones, 41, and Lee Powell, 50, leave Dudley Magistrates Court, where they were disqualified for life from keeping animals and ordered to pay more than £2,700 each in costs after selling the 'crippled' monkeyThe couple have been disqualified from keeping animals and will have to transfer all their current animals, which the court heard were also monkeys, into the care of the RSPCA.
Powell and Jones, both of Stourbridge, denied four charges brought by the RSPCA under the Animal Welfare Act of 2006.
During their trial the couple denied knowing that there was anything wrong with the monkey, which they sold in June for £650 in cash after placing an advert in a local newspaper.
Distressing: An X-ray of the baby marmoset's fractured right and left femur. Petshop owner Jimmy Wick alerted the RSPCA as soon as he saw the condition of the monkey The couple were both ordered to pay the RSPCA costs of £2,713.50 as well as £325 each to the woman who bought the monkey.
The couple did not comment as they left court but were both smiling as they walked away from the building.
Speaking after the hearing, RSPCA Inspector Jackie Hickman said it was the first time she had dealt with a case involving a monkey and that it had not been an easy case to handle.
Banned: The couple denied four charges of cruelty brought by the RSPCA under the Animal Welfare Act but were ordered to give up all their other animals to the RSPCAThe monkey was brought in to Jimmy Wick at his shop Wickid Pets in Wolverhampton. Wick, who has been keeping marmosets for more than 25 years, said the condition of the monkey was 'just wrong' and he knew he had to report it to the RSPCA.
He said: 'He had gone through a lot of pain and suffering. For a young monkey to have so many broken bones at different rates of healing means it's just not one thing that's happened to him - it was just awful to see.
'He couldn't walk properly, he would commando-crawl. I tried to introduce him to a female monkey that had babies the same age. She tried to take the baby monkey on board - babies cling on to the mothers - and this baby monkey could not even cling on. 'It was crying its eyes out because it wanted to get to her. It broke my heart to see it.'
source: dailymail
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