What did we talk about? Below is the Edited Transcript

There’s a monkey on the loose

Hey everyone happy to be coming to you from my studio here in Saint Louis, Missouri. For you for those of you who don’t know me my name is John Schink and I’m the founder and managing broker of Deerwood Realty here in Saint Louis. Got a great story for you today out of, I believe, Nevada but before we get to that I just wanted to mention I’d like this to be a community where we can all kind of contribute and so you know, leave me a voicemail, tell me a story about your neighbors, and we’ll we’ll kind of go over, we’ll dissect it we’ll see if, you know, Is your neighbor in the wrong? And we’ll just kind of group source it will kind of crowdsource it and see how it goes. So the phone number for that is 314-274-3964. You can get in touch with me also you can send me an email at media@deerwoodrealtystl.com. We’ve got eight subscribers so far I think. Now the goal is going to be 10. if we can just get to 10 subscribers that would be great and so tell your friends tell, tell your family, tell anybody who will listen to you that Deerwood Realty and friends has a podcast now and you should be listening to it.

So with that let’s get into our article for the day and that’s going to be the headline Reno pet monkey might not be returned to owner after escaping in May document show.

We’re going to go with Gabby and we’re not even going to try and pronounce what the the animal is. We’re going to go with monkey might not be returned to its owner after escaping from its Reno home and injuring four people last month. This was the monkey’s second escape. In 2015 animal services responded to a call of a monkey in the neighborhood. Photos taken at the time showed Gabby sitting on the top of a roof of a house and Gabby is just one of eight exotic animals in Washoe county at this time. When Gabby escaped on May 25th animal services were called to a northwest Reno neighborhood and eventually captured the monkey after four neighbors were injured. The neighbor said his daughter and mother were among those injured. He says he does not want the monkey to return to the neighborhood his daughter and mother were both bitten and scratched by Gabby and received several rabies shots they’re awaiting blood work results in case the monkey carries any diseases.

The victim’s attorney said Gabby also bit two other children in the neighborhood. After being captured the monkey was placed under a mandatory 10-day quarantine in case it has rabies and from what I understand rabies shots are tremendously painful. Now that’s just what I’ve heard. I don’t I don’t have anything to back that up luckily I’ve never had to get a rabies shot.

County documents do not detail how Gabby escaped but said that the owner’s account matched neighbor stories about how the monkey escaped so they know how it got out.

And we’ll just continue to go down.

Jennings said ideally the monkey will be placed in an appropriate sanctuary however she is unaware of any sanctuaries for primates in northern Nevada

And then here’s the part that I found so fascinating. Monkeys, Bobcats and Pythons, there are eight exotic pets registered in Washoe County according to the data provided by the Washoe County regional animal services those eight pets are:

It says permits are not required for tier 1 exotic pets such as chinchillas, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders. Permits are required for tier 2 and 3 exotic pets. Examples of tier 2 pets include animals such as an Ocelot, Serval, Kinkajou and constrictors that are, I believe 12 feet long and weigh over 30 pounds. County documents say Gabby is categorized as a tier 3 exotic pet. They are required to have a $250,000 liability insurance coverage. Other tier 3 pets include clouded leopards, wolves, Komodo dragons, and tigers.

If an exotic animal permit application is approved by the county conditions may be placed on the permit such as annual inspections by the animal services and requiring an emergency plan including evacuation and escape proceed procedures.

So I will leave a link to this in the description below. I think this is a fantastic article and very well written and very informative. Should I ever desire to move to Reno to have an exotic pet I feel like I will be in really really good shape.

So, I have questions. And just thought I’d like to go through those with you.

So here we go. Number one, Gabby is a sneaky monkey. This monkey has escaped twice. I’m not an anti-exotic pet. I am a little bit uncomfortable with how some pets are sourced. So you know, Like where are we getting this pet? Are we just going somewhere where no one’s you know paying attention, we pilfer an ocelot?

So I don’t agree with that and I don’t know if there’s like ocelot farms. I mean, I really have no knowledge of this.

If you want to keep an exotic pet should you be allowed?

I guess?

I don’t know but anyway that leads me to the next one. Should neighbors be alerted to exotic pets?

So let’s say you’re looking at houses in a neighborhood to buy and you come across this house, and it really fits in perfect, but you don’t notice that there’s a tiger living in the backyard. And I thought that was a little silly, I really did, but then when I looked at the article a tier three pet is considered as … a tiger is a tier three pet. So what I’m reading, as long as you have $250,000 in liability coverage and you meet up with all the other criteria for for having a tiger you can have one in your backyard.

Oh you need an evacuation plan.

But let’s just say in the suburbs let’s not talk about you know, dense urban condos or something like that. Let’s just talk about the suburbs. Would you be comfortable living next to someone who owns a tiger? I’m just using a tiger that to me would be the worst situation, maybe a large 12 foot or larger boa constrictor.

I don’t know. A lot of people own what they want, but it gets a little weird when we’re talking about some of these animals. So anyway should that be….Should that be something on a disclosure? “By the way I live next to a tiger and I think it’s fun and I want to leave. I’m moving because of this reason.”

So then imagine you’re driving home from work, okay and you see a monkey on the on the street, or on the roof, and it jumps off and it bites you. Now how mad are you going to be about that? Like, not at all? And like I said, I think no matter when an animal bites you, you need to go to see somebody about if the animal has rabies. Those shots like I said apparently hurt.

So that was something that I was curious about and then in the article that says there’s a criminal citation for having an unrestrained animal against the owner like a leash law for monkeys. So is there some like? We have leash law in the county that all dogs have to be on a leash I don’t know what it is for cats. I don’t know what it would be for monkeys. I don’t know if monkeys are allowed in Saint Louis. I’ve seen a monkey in the county. I don’t know if it’s allowed. I’ve never seen a tiger or a larger than 12 foot boa constrictor and Ocelot would be kind of cool I think. I don’t know, after about the age of 12 you’re kind of kind of done with the exotic pets are cool. You just go to the zoo. But, to each their own. I mean I’m sure there’s some dedicated exotic animal keepers out there that really care about their animals and do a good job and more power to them.

So finally, If an exotic animal application is approved by the county, this is in Nevada, conditions may be placed on the permit such as animal inspections by animal services and requiring an emergency plan including evacuation and escaping procedures.

So think about that. You’re going to get this, let’s say, boa constrictor. And it gets loose and now you have to have an evacuation procedure…. evacuation and escape procedure. And this is where it gets dicey. Can you imagine? Nice couple come, some little kids playing outside and they see you know larger than 12 foot boa constrictor slithering up by them. Now that’s not a good situation, I don’t think. And then you know, If we were talking about this in the context of the article, with Gobble the Turkey this wouldn’t be an issue. The police would come in and shoot and then they’d miss or they’d wing it and then it would be half dead and then they’d stab it with a knife. So that would be, that wouldn’t be an issue. But I don’t know about around here and I just think that’s kind of wild.

And then your permit. With that exotic animal permit you’re required to have at least a $250,000 liability insurance. So like, if your tiger eats someone it sure does seem like you’re going to be sued for a lot more than $250,000. I mean, that’s just the way I’m looking at it. Now maybe you have a different opinion and I’m, and I guess the question that I would frame it is this. Would you, what would you do? What would you be content with? I’m all for property rights but like I said I’m not gonna be able to fend off a tiger if it comes after me. And somehow I feel like I should know that. Now you do have, you obviously have disclosures of these pets as far as from the county. it looks like it looks like here you can you can go online and look up who has an exotic pet. At least, what zip code they’re in and what it is. But maybe something should be done a little more than that? You know just for just maybe?

Somebody’s out there that’s a tiger apologist and says you know, “they’re not they’re not as vicious as they seem to be.” Okay if you say so. But I’m curious. What would you guys do if you live next to a tiger or a boa constrictor or an Ocelot or some of those other things that I can’t pronounce?

Give me a call three one four two seven four three nine six four send me an email me at media@deerwoodrealtystl.com and I’ll catch you on the next one

Source Link: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2021/06/11/reno-pet-monkey-might-not-returned-owner-after-escaping-may/7621562002/