Biologists have said a viral TikTok monkey may have been stolen from a colony in Florida despite its owner’s claims that he rescued the green monkey baby from a laboratory.
TikToker Kim Raymond Feaste, 31, has gained more than 3.4 million followers on the account he shares with his pet monkey ‘Thabo’.
On the account, called Thabo and Ray, Feaste uploads videos of his five-year-old green monkey on the loose, going to Walmart and eating chicken wings.
Feaste claims to have rescued his TikTok co-star from a laboratory in Las Vegas, where the monkey’s mother was allegedly killed.
However, expert biologists who are skeptical of Feaste’s claims say this is not likely.
TikToker Kim Raymond Feaste, 31, has gained more than 3.4 million followers on the account he shares with his pet monkey ‘Thabo’.
On the account, called Thabo and Ray, Feaste uploads videos of his five-year-old green monkey on the loose, going to Walmart and eating chicken wings.
Feaste claims to have rescued his TikTok co-star from a laboratory in Las Vegas, where the monkey’s mother was allegedly killed.
“Labs don’t give away monkeys,” Dr. Deborah “Missy” Williams, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University who has overseen the Dania Beach monkey colony since 2014, told Congress. South Florida Solar Sentinel. “They sacrifice them,” she added.
Williams accuses Feaste of capturing vervet monkeys from the Dania Beach monkey colony near the Fort Lauderdale airport five years ago.
The biologist has sent complaints to police across the country and emails to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission expressing her claims.
Aside from the videos Feaste, a Tampa native, has taken in the neighborhood and her own suspicions, Williams doesn’t have any concrete evidence to prove her theory.
Feaste insists Thabo did not come from Fort Lauderdale, and his critics have no evidence to prove that is the case.
When asked for evidence showing that the monkey came from a laboratory, Feaste said: “no government agency needs or requires that kind of paperwork that Thabo’s possession would have fallen into.” If there was, I would have it.’
Feaste says that even if Thabo came from the Fort Lauderdale colony, taking the monkey would not be illegal because vervet monkeys are not protected. He also claims to have the necessary permission to capture the animal.
Expert biologists who are skeptical of Feaste’s claims say it is unlikely that he rescued the monkey from a laboratory in Las Vegas.
One of the most shocking videos uploaded to the TikTok account shows Thabo behind the wheel of a car, operating the vehicle while traveling on the road.
Another shows Thabo jumping around a Walmart store, landing on computer screens, climbing shelves and jumping into ball pits.
“If there was an injured monkey in Fort Lauderdale, I could literally have it in my possession and then at that point it would be illegal to release it and not keep it,” he said.
FWC officials declined to comment on the situation, stating that they do not comment on active investigations, but did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation.
Feste addressed Williams’ allegations in a TikTok. “Deborah has been harassing us for eight months,” she said in the caption of a video of Thabo wearing a diaper.
“Deborah needs to mind her business and leave you and the baby alone,” one user commented.
One of the most shocking videos uploaded to the TikTok account shows Thabo behind the wheel of a car, operating the vehicle as it moves down the road.
Another shows Thabo jumping around a Walmart store, landing on computer screens, climbing shelves and jumping into ball pits.
Feaste frequently shares food with Thabo and shares videos of the pair eating watermelon, chicken wings and even a popsicle.
Thabo and the other monkey from the Dania Beach colony were originally imported from Africa for medical research, but then escaped from the farm that housed them in the 1940s, according to scientists.
The monkeys now live in relative freedom among the mangroves and industrial warehouses near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Williams protects the monkeys and feeds them bananas and other local business owners protect them.
Feaste frequently shares food with Thabo and shares videos of the pair eating watermelon, chicken wings and even a popsicle.
Feste insists: “My monkey has been well cared for,” he said. ‘We live in mansions, we have a lot of money and we live a good life’
“They’re my babies,” said Rebecca Knowles, a fleet maintenance coordinator at an environmental company where about 20 monkeys live. “Every time I’m here having a bad day, I come out and see them playing and stuff, like little humans.”
Because they live in a densely populated urban area, some of the monkeys have unfortunately died in car collisions or due to electrocution from power lines.
Animal advocates insist that regardless of Thabo’s origins, he belongs in the wild and not as a pet.
Vervet monkeys become too aggressive for owners to handle at the age of five, Thabo’s current age.
Owners are forced to remove their teeth or get rid of the animals altogether when they become too violent.
Feste insists that this is not a problem with Thabo. “My monkey has been well cared for,” she said. “We live in mansions, we have a lot of money and we live a good life.”
‘There are monkeys whose brains open and [they’re] “We’re putting microchips into them in the labs as we speak,” Feaste said, “but you’re worried about Thabo and Ray offline.”
