The Little Rock Zoo

.The Little Rock Zoo needs to step up and care for the animals better! Please read the several artciles here with deaths, sickness and a bald chimp!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Things just aren't right at the Frisky's wildlife and Primate Sanctuary-Colleen Layton

Hi Readers;
I was directed to this link through an anon comment. Before you watch this video I would like to point out some things that I don't think that sound right.
These are all comments that Colleen Layton of Frisky's wildlife and Primate Sanctuary (?) has said.
  • Colleen says that zoos will not take ex pet monkeys. Oh how untrue that is. PPI located in Texas has over 100 primates which 90% of them were ex pets. I know because I did volunteer work for them and meet and heard their stories. You can read about PPI here. I actually placed one of my monkeys there that had been a pet and he is paired up with a wonderful little female and they are so happy together. I support this little monkey by donatingg 150.00 per month for his care and food. I also donated 2 fairly new golf carts to help the caretakers out with the many acres they have to cover in a day. PPI is filled with trees, wildlife, big cages, lots of enrichment and wonderful weather all year long. Also, I placed my 2 chimpanzees a few years ago at the Little Rock Zoo, see here. So saying that the monkeys there would be euthanized is a big fat lie, unless Colleen does it on her own. There are a lot of Monkey sanctuaries out there that are allowed to be there, have the proper permits and licenses and are willing and able to take in the monkeys there at her place. Sounds like she is playing on the hearts of animal lovers, but it doesn't fool me. I would be willing to find placement of every single monkey she has. I know of a few good sanctuaries that still have open cages.
  • I saw Colleen throwing grapes into the cage and calling it enrichment. That isn't enrichment, that's feeding and being lazy about it and calling it enrichment. Enrichment is things such as, but not limited to; take an empty roll of toilet paper, put nuts or whatever is healthy for the monkey, take paper towels and stuff it in the tube and hide them in the cage. This way the monkey "REALLY" has to look for them and then once they get them they have to open it up and get their goodies. Gosh I never ever considered throwing food into a cage as enrichment. Please.
  • They are saying on this video that colleen has all of these monkeys in her home. Well the last time I was there, her home in which she lives in was to the right of the sanctuary. The sanctuary is a separate building, not her home. They are trying to make it look like a fluff story and that Colleen has given up her home for these monkeys which isn't true.
  • Colleen also says that she helped her neighbors move in. The only thing that I have heard is that she brought over a welcome basket for them.
  • Colleen stats that she has triple locks on the cages and hinges. You can see by some of the recent photos of her place that some of the rows of caging don't have any type of fencing to protect someone from approaching one of the cages. Some of the rows have a small fence, low enough for even a child to climb. So let's say a child gets onto her property and starts wandering around, see's the monkeys, knows no better and reaches out for them. Monkeys are capable and will defend their territory (cage), so the child is going to get bit, scratched, pulled closer to the cage or all 3. Then how good are those locks? It wouldn't matter if you had 15 locks on each cage.
  • Colleen also stats that she does wildlife rehabilitation. Well my dear Colleen monkeys are NOT wildlife. They have their own classification which is "EXOTIC" which does not fall under wildlife. Gee if it did, we would have monkeys living in our trees here in the US. I noticed one of the neighbors said she would buy someone elses house. Well, are you going to buy every single house where the people are unhappy about the monkeys? That's the most ridiculous thing I have heard. I think that woman needs to read about how Colleen had at least one pet monkey. She would dress him, take him out into public, and so forth. (you can read that article under sanctuaries here on this blog) then perhaps she would see what is really going on there.
Too many things are so wrong with this! I can't even imagine that 23 primates were taken from pet owners and given to frisky's just in MD! If this sanctaury was all that good, then why wasn't armini the baby monkey placed there with her? I got a call to take him and I said NO. Baby monkeys are way to much work, they require alot of interaction because if they were with their mother they would be on the go all of the time. Gosh I hate it when people try to keep exotic animals under false pretenses. It's not fair to the primates and they could certainly have a better life in a good, real sanctuary in large cages, fresh air, nice weather and not have to worry about being friendly towards their caretaker.

When I had primates I said who I rescued and who I bought, never lied about what I did with working the ones I could and leaving the rescued ones alone. My first monkey was Reggie. I got a call  from a friend saying that a man was caught beating the monkey in his back yard and the man said that if someone didn't buy him he was going to set him free. My husband and I drove about 3 hours with our friends and met the guy and the monkey. My husband looked into the tiny little carrier and the monkey reached his hand out and punched him right in the eye. After getting him back we noticed he didn't have a single tooth in his mouth, he was etremely skinny and mean. The end of this story is, we finally got him  in with a female and the 2 of them had 3 large cages that linked together with  cage tunnels. So my first monkey was not a baby, no a pet but a rescue.

I also wanted to note that my last visit there when you walk into the door of the sanctuary(?) (NOT HER HOME) there is a black and white capuchin monkey that is an adult and is being held in a BIRD CAGE!!!!!! What kind of sanctuary would restrict the movement and space a monkey needs and put them in a bird cage for god sakes. That alone to me should NOT be allowed! In the wild which is their natural behaviour they would travel miles just in one day, so how is that monkey and the others mental health being locked up in a tiny little cage?


 There was no lock down on the cage and I was told by Colleen not to approach the cage because she was mean and would bite me. Then how does the inside of the cage get cleaned? She can't handle the monkey, it has no lock down so how? If she would to open the cage door, I know from experience that monkey will be out!!!!!! Does she roll the cage outside and hose it down with the monkey in it? There were also other smaller monkeys to the right also held in the same fashion and in the same room as birds. Does she have a quarantine cage for the new monkeys she takes in? A quarantine cage means that the new monkey has to be in there for 30 days and can't be breathing the same air as everyone else. So that would mean they would have to be in a completely different building. 

Video Link here

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