Pet Monkey Stolen In Minnesota + Is It Legal To Have A Pet Monkey?
A pet monkey named 'Coco Chanel' was reportedly stolen from a car in a Cub Foods parking lot.
This incident happened on April 5th, 2022 in Maplewood, Minnesota. According to the Pioneer Press, Police were called to the parking lot of Cub Foods at 2390 White Bear Ave North about a theft from a car. The report stated that Coco’s caretaker told officers she went inside the store around 8:30 p. and left the Capuchin monkey in her pink carrier in the car. When she returned, both the monkey and the pink carrier were missing.
Maplewood Minnesota Public Safety posted on it on their Facebook page and it has been shared over 300 times so far.
The Capuchin monkey can be seen in numerous tv shows and movies, and is native to some tropical forests in Central America and South America, as well as wet lowland forests on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama, and dry forests on the Pacific coast.
According to findlaw.com, Minnesota bans "regulated animals" from being kept as pets, including:
- Felines, except domestic cats and breeds recognized by national or international multi-cat registries
- Bears
- Nonhuman primates
- Deer
- Wolves
There's many more on the list, however in 2012, 19 states had outright bans on private monkey ownership including Minnesota. The owner of the monkey moved to the land of 10,000 lakes from Texas where it is legal to own a monkey. So it is not legal to have a monkey as a pet in our great state.
Lieutenant Joe Steiner of the Maplewood Police department is asking anyone who knows the whereabouts of 'Coco' or who saw anything suspicious in the area of Cub Foods around the time she was taken to reach out to him at 651-249-2608 or Joe.Steiner@maplewoodmn.gov.