After being saved, a mistreated monkey who had been given cocaine and dumped down a toilet by its drug-dealing owner has a fresh lease on life.
Mother-of-four Vicki Holland, 39, was caught on camera feeding Milly the marmoset kebabs, sausages, and hamburgers at her Newport, Gwent, home.
She was also shown in one video inciting a dog to follow the helpless monkey as it fled in fear.
After police discovered footage on Holland’s phone as a result of a narcotics raid at her residence, they were handed to the RSPCA, who were then shown the animal’s brutal treatment.
Holland was convicted for narcotics offences, and Milly the monkey was saved and placed in a specialised institution.
According to the RSPCA, Milly still has a partner named Moon, and the two are inseparable at Dorset’s Monkey World.
After admitting admission to three violations of the Animal Welfare Act in December of last year, Holland was given a lifetime ban on keeping any animals.
In one video, she was seen carrying cocaine as the monkey hid inside her house.
Want some coke? Lick my fingers, she can be heard telling the monkey.
Another captured Holland giggling as she attempted to flush the animal—which was still clinging to the toilet rim—down the toilet. Come out, she commanded. I have to go.
‘This was a really upsetting situation, but I am delighted to see Milly is doing well in a great home with her partner Moon by her side,’ said Milly’s rescuer, RSPCA inspector and exotics officer Sophie Daniels.
As part of its “Cancel Out Cruelty” campaign, the organisation highlighted Milly’s plight.
According to the RSPCA, employees at the centre were concerned about the impact the abuse had on Milly since she first had trouble settling in and was scared of humans.
When somebody entered the cage, she would hide in the rear and sound the alarm.
Are marmosets permissible pets in the UK?
Although it is theoretically lawful to keep a marmoset as a pet in the UK, the RSPCA is pushing for the governments of England and Wales to modify this policy.
The RSPCA and other animal rights organisations have fought to outlaw primate ownership in the UK.
Dr. Ros Clubb, senior scientific manager for the RSPCA, said, “Unfortunately, our inspectors witness monkeys caged up in bird cages, given fast food and sugary beverages, denied of companions of their own species, and sickened by neglect.
Because individuals do not know how to properly care for these creatures, “we believe that many are suffering behind closed doors.”
They had to gradually increase her self-assurance and gave her a friend, a fellow marmoset named Moon who had been rescued from the pet trade.
The fact that Moon was fast to react to Milly’s alarm cries and would remain by her side to soothe her has helped her regain her confidence.
The two are now attached and like spending time together in their sizable cage while hunting insects.
“This is why our Cancel Out Cruelty campaign is so crucial,” Inspector Daniels said, “so we can keep aiding in the rescue of helpless creatures like Milly.”
Last year, Holland received a suspended sentence from Newport Magistrates Court.
The marmosets have, according to prosecutor Aled Watkins, “a very specialised set of demands.”
But according to him, Holland gave the monkey “unsuitable food” such as processed ham and left the monkey’s cage “devoid of dcor essential for environmental enrichment.”
22 “extremely unpleasant” videos featuring the marmoset were on her phone.
Three were shown to the jury, one of which, according to Mr. Watkins, showed the marmoset hiding within a toilet bowl in a “quite disturbed condition.”
In the video, Holland was heard stating “I need the bathroom” and “should I flush it?” After flushing the toilet, Holland urged the animal to get away from him and called it a “f****** t**t.”
Want some coke? Holland could be heard asking in another video. The marmoset gets to lick my fingertips.
In a third video, Holland’s dog was seen getting quite close to the monkey. The marmoset had “full reign” of the home and was in a “hazardous setting” with knives and electrical outlets, according to Mr. Watkins, who said there was more evidence of the dog pursuing the animal.
He said that Holland fed the monkey kebabs, burgers, and sausages rather than giving it appropriate food, as was related to the court.
Holland had “shown utter disdain to the fundamental care and requirements,” according to Mr. Watkins, of her pet.
He informed the courts, “This is not negligence; this is willful infliction.”
Holland was “extremely humiliated and profoundly ashamed of her behaviour,” according to Scott Bowen, the defence attorney.
“Ms. Holland completely recognises that, in retrospect, she shouldn’t have kept the animal in the first place.”
The monkey, which was sent to the RSPCA during the inquiry, suffered “distress,” according to Mr. Bowen, but “no long-term injury.”
The animal was “terrified as a consequence of her aggressiveness and maltreatment when it was inside a toilet bowl,” according to the court’s testimony.
The treatment of the monkey was discovered when it was discovered that Russell Cox and Holland’s house had cocaine concealed within Kinder Eggs.
Along with Kinder Eggs carrying $1,600 worth of cocaine, police discovered drug paraphernalia.
At Newport Crown Court, Holland and Cox, both 44, pleaded guilty to possessing a class-A drug with the purpose to dispense it.
Holland received a 20-month sentence that will be suspended for two years in November 2020, while Cox, of Cwmbran, south Wales, received a 30-month sentence.
The couple’s cocaine company brought in roughly £40,000, according to testimony at a Proceeds of Crime hearing.