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Monkeys around again in Washington County
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_536473.html

See also: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07310/831454-58.stm

By Jill King Greenwood
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Teenagers hoping to steal marijuana instead made off with a pair of exotic
monkeys after breaking into a Washington County animal compound early
Monday.

The monkeys -- a spot-nose guenon and a mona guenon -- were returned later
in the day by the mother of a boy who claimed to know the thieves.

Grant Kemmerer, who owns the Wild World of Animals compound in Eighty Four
and runs a traveling educational animal exhibit, said he is amazed the
primates didn't attack their captors.

Kemmerer said he returned from a show in Massachusetts about 2:30 a.m. and,
while unpacking, heard a car speed off from the secluded grounds.

He said he found someone had entered a temperature-controlled building and
used travel cages to abscond with the monkeys.

The cages were torn apart and Gwendolyn, a 14-year-old spot-nose guenon, and
Lucy, a 5-year-old mona guenon, were missing. Kenya, an 8-year-old spot-nose
guenon male who can be aggressive and protective of his surroundings,
escaped during the theft but was found nearby, Kemmerer said.

Just before 9 a.m., Kemmerer, 42, said he received an anonymous call from a
woman who said her son's friends had stolen the animals and later sold one
of them to a family in Marianna. The woman tracked down both animals and met
Kemmerer just before noon at a Bentleyville gas station to return them, he
said.

The woman, whom Kemmerer declined to identify, told him a group of teen boys
scaled an 8-foot fence to enter his compound because they had heard a rumor
that he was growing marijuana in a greenhouse. Instead, they found the three
exotic monkeys, along with two leopards, a hyena and other animals.

Kemmerer and his wife, Jaimie, 31, use the animals in educational
presentations to schoolchildren and community groups across the country.

"I'm surprised Kenya or the other monkeys did not tear them to pieces," he
said of the thieves. "They do not like any disruption in their routine or
their surroundings, and they are extremely protective and possessive of
those they know and who take care of them."

Kemmerer said the monkeys appear to be unharmed and that he will monitor
them for changes in their behavior and signs of illness or injury.

The woman who returned the monkeys told Kemmerer that Gwendolyn was kept in
a shed overnight, when temperatures dipped into the mid-30s. The couple, who
have raised the monkeys since birth and bottle-fed them in infancy, were
worried that primates would hurt a child.

"Monkeys, as a rule, don't like children," Grant Kemmerer said. "We were so
afraid that whoever took them would think it was cute to have them play with
kids, and they could really hurt a child."

Grant Kemmerer said when the couple does presentations for schoolchildren,
the monkeys are harnessed and leashed and not allowed out of a handler's
grasp.

Karen Vacco, lead keeper of primates at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium,
said monkeys like those stolen from the Kemmerers can sell for as much as
$3,000. She said the animals are high-strung and can become easily excited
or upset.

State police are investigating, and no arrests had been made or charges
filed as of yesterday afternoon. Kemmerer had offered a $5,000 reward for
the safe return of the animals, but it wasn't clear whether the woman who
surrendered them would receive the money.