Puppy kidnapped by food stealing gang of monkeys

Virgin Radio

22 Sep 2021, 11:54

In an equally whacky and scary animal kingdom hostage situation, a gang of Malaysian monkeys have been spotted abducting people’s pets from their homes. 

A young black and white puppy was snatched from its home by a wild monkey on September 16th in the Taman Lestari Putra area just outside of Kuala Lumpur. A photograph circulated online of the monkey leaping across roofs with the dog in tow, escaping the people trying to chase him down.

Locals say this monkey was part of a gang of monkeys well known for stealing food from people’s houses. The primate gang are now being held responsible for a recent string of sudden cat and dog disappearances.

A local woman who witnessed the incident, Cherry Lew Yee Lee, said: "The puppy looked tired and weary but the monkey did not seem to hurt it.

"The monkey was just holding the puppy while it moved around. It looked like it was treating the puppy as a friend or its baby, it was very strange. However, we still needed to save the poor dog because it appeared to have been starving."

Over the next few days the monkey and puppy pair were spotted at various locations in the area. Local residents made several attempts at rescuing the pup, including one woman’s attempt to lure the monkey with a loaf of bread.

After three days of sightings, locals were able to scare the monkey away and get it to drop the puppy by throwing small rocks and chunks of wood.

Cherry Lew Yee Lee was part of the rescue team, and shared an update in a local Facebook group. 

“The vet mentioned that the puppy seems ok, but the head has some swellings so the puppy had a X-ray. Everything seems ok but we will need to monitor him to see if there is any head damages.” 

“The puppy has been strong for 2 days within the arm of the monkey so we will also try our best to let him grow up well!” 

Cherry has now adopted the puppy and named him Saru, which means monkey in Japanese, in honour of the ordeal.

Another rescuer, Mr. Fu, said he hopes this incident will bring attention to the rampant deforestation across Malaysia that has caused monkeys like this one to move into human inhabited towns and cities.