Texas Woman Struggles to Get Spider Monkey Back After DWI Arrest and Malnutrition Discovery

A spider monkey belonging to a Dallas-area influencer had a malnutrition-related ailment when police confiscated him from his owner over the weekend, officials said.

The monkey, named Jorgie Boy, was taken from his owner, Brandi Botello, on Saturday morning after Dallas police officers responded to a single-vehicle collision. According to authorities, the driver was apprehended for driving while inebriated.

The police did not identify the motorist in their statement. Botello told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that she was charged with DWI but said she was not driving. She claimed that at the time of the crash, she was intoxicated and passed out in the passenger seat while clutching the approximately 3-year-old spider monkey.

“I had no idea what was happening. I slept during the vehicle collision. “I didn’t even realize we were in an accident,” she told the broadcaster. “I wasn’t driving.”

She admitted to getting into the driver’s seat following the crash.

“I climbed into the driver’s seat. I didn’t realize we had wrecked in front of the police station. “When I turned around, there was a cop right there, accusing me of driving, but I wasn’t,” she told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

Botello informed the broadcaster that the driver was a male acquaintance who was charged with public intoxication.

According to police, neither the humans nor the monkeys in the car sustained major injuries.

Botello resides in Irving, a neighboring suburb, therefore the monkey was transported to Irving’s animal control department, according to Dallas police.

Irving police stated Thursday that Jorgie Boy has rickets, which is “a bone disease caused by inadequate nutrition.” The police agency stated that he is receiving care at “an undisclosed wildlife sanctuary in Texas.”

Dwan Johns of the Funky Monkey Ranch, a refuge in Fort Worth, Texas, confirmed to NBC News that Jorgie Boy is now under their care.

Johns further confirmed that Jorgie Boy weighed 6 pounds, which is less than half the weight of a typical spider monkey, and that he had microscopic fractures in his bones, a metabolic bone condition caused by insufficient nutrition, and high liver and pancreas levels.

According to Johns, Jorgie Boy was properly given to her on Saturday by Irving Animal Control. She stated that municipal animal control in cities where owning wild animals is illegal cannot care for “wild exotic dangerous animals,” as spider monkeys are designated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Johns refused to return the monkey to its original owner.

“I immediately added him to my USDA license here on the property. “So he is legally here and will stay,” Johns told NBC News. She explained that because Botello had Jorgie Boy illegally in a city where spider monkeys are not allowed, the city “could have euthanized without cause.”

“Thankfully we were available to take him in,” Johns told me.

Some exotic animals, including monkeys, can be owned legally in Texas with a permission, but the city of Irving prohibits the ownership of wild animals.

Botello, who has 43,000 Instagram followers, has been sharing their stories using the hashtag “#FreeJorgieBoy.”

Botello stated on Instagram that “this ugly depressing lonely feeling I have is the worst” but that she is “not going to stop trying!”

“He means more to me than anything in this world I’m not going to let one little mistake break me I’m willing to change anything and everything for him,” she vented.

“Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a real thing,” Botello explained. “I own up to it… “I know I’m a good mother… WE ALL KNOW THAT!”

Jorgie Boy has his online presence, including an Instagram account with nearly 6,000 followers, where he posts images of himself wearing pajamas, taking baths, and dressing up with Botello, who has his name tattooed on her back.

Jorgie Boy’s story follows that of Peanut, an Instagram-famous squirrel who was taken and executed after authorities received accusations that Peanut’s owner was illegally keeping wild animals in his home.