Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

monkeywire - [monkeywire] Zsa Zsa Quarantined After Injuring Man in Dinnertime Mishap

monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>
  • To: monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [monkeywire] Zsa Zsa Quarantined After Injuring Man in Dinnertime Mishap
  • Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 09:15:41 -0500

washingtonpost.com > Metro > Maryland
Pet Monkey Bites the Hand That Feeds Her
Zsa Zsa Quarantined After Injuring Owner's Friend in Dinnertime Mishap

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 1, 2004; Page SM01


The behavior was quite unlike Zsa Zsa.

Sure, she has been known to nip at a shirt button, and she likes to wrestle around. But she has some manners. She'll eat pizza from the table, drink out of a straw, and what's more, members of her family say, she knows right from wrong.


So when Jeffrey Bennett approached Zsa Zsa, a 6-year-old pigtailed macaque monkey, to give her the evening meal of baby formula on Saturday, he had no reason to expect his left thumb would be the main course.

But that's what happened, said Bennett, a 39-year-old man who stays at the Calvert County home of Tracey Summers, the owner of two monkeys. Bennett said Zsa Zsa most likely was intrigued by his silver-colored watch when she decided to chomp down on his hand.

"I feed her all the time. She's a real good monkey. She's never done this before," said Bennett outside of the St. Leonard home on Monday, his hand wrapped in a bloody bandage and his thumb supported by a splint.

Police responded to the house on Kings Road for the rare monkey bite call at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, taking Bennett to Calvert Memorial Hospital for treatment. The bite, which occurred at the base of Bennett's thumb, did not cause serious injuries.

It is legal to keep monkeys as pets in Maryland as long as the owner obtains the proper permits. Zsa Zsa came from Dallas, said Summers, as part of arrangements to rescue her from an abusive home. More recently, Summers bought Isabel, a 2-year-old pigtailed macaque, on the Internet as a companion for Zsa Zsa. Don Baugher, who lives with Summers, said the monkeys cost about $3,500 each.

Pigtailed macaques are brown monkeys native to Sumatra and Burma. Females generally weigh 12 to 20 pounds and can grow up to two feet tall. Some have been trained in their native lands to climb palm trees and harvest coconuts. Summers said her monkeys live in large steel cages and play in a swimming pool outside.

"They're very good girls. They play rough sometimes, but they're very, very smart. Zsa Zsa knows 'time out,' and 'no teeth," said Summers, who works at a hair salon and was away from her home when Bennett said the monkey attacked. She believes that Zsa Zsa would not do such a thing, and said a more likely explanation for the wound was that Bennett cut himself with a knife.

"Nobody's been able to provide proof that it happened," she said, adding that "I don't want some animal rights organization camping out on my doorstep."

For now, Zsa Zsa is being kept in quarantine inside the house for 30 days, and county Health Department officials will make periodic checks on the health of the animal, said Ashley Conway, a public health nurse in the disease surveillance and control unit. Conway said there have been "a couple" of monkey bites in Calvert during the past year. The main concern from a health standpoint is that monkeys can transmit the herpes B virus to humans, she said.

"There are concerns when people start to keep wild pets. Even though they were born in captivity, they are wild animals," Conway said. "A good rule of thumb is not to mess with exotic animals. If you see a cute monkey, don't pet it, don't feed it, don't pick it up."





  • [monkeywire] Zsa Zsa Quarantined After Injuring Man in Dinnertime Mishap, Carrie McLaren, 01/01/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page