Police Are Searching for a Pet Monkey

Police are searching for a man and his pet monkey after the animal allegedly bit a 6-year-old girl Saturday at Riverfront Park.

Serena Taylor was shaken but fine after suffering two puncture wounds just below her left eye. Police responded shortly after the incident at about 4:45 p.m., but they did not find the monkey or its owner.

"It was one of those, 'Is that a joke?' kind of things," said Sgt. Jon Hardy with the Salem Police Department. "It's not something that would happen very often."

Hardy is confident police will find the owner.

"He's walking around with a monkey in a diaper. I'm sure someone will spot him."

In the meantime, Serena is taking antibiotics prescribed at Salem Hospital Urgent Care to prevent possible infections, said her mother, Pilar Taylor. Without the monkey's medical history, she said, there wasn't much else they could do.

"My fear is that the monkey could have something that could be transmitted to my daughter," she said.

That risk is much higher in monkeys than other animals because they're similar to humans, said Kim Erbes, a veterinarian at Salem Veterinary Emergency Clinic. Monkeys can carry rabies, salmonella, tuberculosis, herpes B and viruses.

Chances are the child will be OK, Erbes said, but without more knowledge about the primate, it's difficult to know.

The Taylor family was at the park Saturday to celebrate a birthday. Serena's aunt Amanda Botnen said she talked to the monkey's owner while he sat on a bench near the playground.

A crowd gathered, she said, and the monkey started pacing and looking agitated. Serena walked up behind her aunt and approached the monkey to ask if she could pet it, Botnen said, then it jumped on her.

It's a sad situation all the way around, said Jan Mothershed with the Oregon Zoo.

"The poor primate was probably freaked out of its mind. It's not the best thing to do to take them out like that. Nobody wins. The owner loses, the animal loses; now the poor child that got bit loses. These are not domestic pets."

Mothershed said Oregon law requires a permit to own a monkey, although a bill in the Oregon Legislature is pushing to outlaw some exotic pets, including monkeys.

It is not known whether the monkey's owner has a license to keep the animal.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call the Salem Police Department at (503) 588-6123."

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