When authorities seized a spider monkey from its owner over the weekend, they discovered that the influencer from the Dallas area had a malnutrition-related illness, according to officials.
After Dallas police officers went to a single-vehicle accident on Saturday morning, Brandi Botello, the monkey’s owner, took Jorgie Boy away. According to a police statement, the driver was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The motorist was not named by the police in the statement.
Despite being charged with DWI, Botello insisted that she was not operating a motor vehicle. She claimed to have been drunk when the collision occurred and to have fainted while in the passenger seat with the spider monkey, who was over three years old.
“I didn’t even know what was going on. I slept through the car accident. I didn’t even know we were in an accident,” she stated. “I wasn’t driving.”
After the collision, she claimed to have taken over the wheel.
“I hopped over to the driver’s seat. I didn’t know we crashed in front of the police station. When I turned around there was a cop right there and he was trying to accuse me of driving, but I wasn’t driving,” she stated.
Botello informed the station that he was charged with public intoxication and that the driver was a male acquaintance. According to police, neither the people inside the car nor the monkey were gravely hurt.
According to Dallas police, the monkey was moved to Irving’s animal control department because Botello resides in the nearby suburb of Irving.
Jorgie Boy was diagnosed with rickets, which Irving police said Thursday was “a bone disease caused by inadequate nutrition.” According to the police agency, he is being treated at “an undisclosed wildlife sanctuary in Texas.”
According to the Dallas Morning News, Jorgie Boy weighed 6 pounds, which is less than half of the usual spider monkey’s weight. He also had small bone fractures and increased liver and pancreas levels. The sanctuary was named Funky Monkey Ranch.
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Although the city of Irving forbids the ownership of wild animals, it is permitted in Texas to own certain exotic animals, such as monkeys, with permission.
With 43,000 Instagram followers, Botello has been sharing stories from his fans using the hashtag “#FreeJorgieBoy.”
“This ugly depressing lonely feeling I have is the worst,” wrote Botello on Instagram, but she added that she is “not going to stop trying!”
