Friday, August 5, 2011

Fairgrounds Housing Exotic Birds, Monkeys After Rescues


By Adam Ghassemi

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – They are beautiful creatures that officials said were abused by their owners.

"The conditions these monkeys were living in were absolutely atrocious and unacceptable," Scotlund Haisley said Friday at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.

The Animal Rescue Corps seized them from a Shelbyville home Thursday after one escaped, attacked and seriously wounded a neighbor and sheriff's deputy, before being shot and killed.

Haisley said they were basically left to rot.

"The minute you put a wild animal in a cage it is an inhumane act," he said.

Inside an un-air conditioned shed they found the monkeys crammed into crates, a bird cage and a raccoon trap with no access to food or water, with no security to speak of.

"Before we could even start approaching to rescue these animals we had to identify ways to secure their cages just so we didn't put our own lives at threat," said Haisley.

Charges in the investigation are still pending..." More & video

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