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And Finally
Justin Bieber’s monkey no longer Justin Bieber’s monkey
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 22 May 2013
A monkey given to Justin Bieber for his nineteenth birthday in the middle of his European tour, but confiscated by German officials after he failed to get the correct paperwork to take it into the country, has now been officially and permanently confiscated.
As previously reported, Bieber was given four weeks to return to collect the monkey, named Mally, back in March. His New York office later contacted the Munich animal shelter who had been caring for the monkey in the interim and asked that Mally be re-homed. But this did not address the considerable cost incurred in caring for the animal by that point. Bieber was given a new deadline of 17 May to give written confirmation that he didn’t want his monkey back and to discuss plans to cover those costs.
Apparently that didn’t happen either, but regardless, Mally is now officially no longer the property of JB. Spokeswoman for the animal shelter told Reuters: “The monkey belongs to Germany now. We hope that it will be [re-homed with a group of monkeys] as soon as possible because the monkey needs to be integrated soon – it is becoming really strange because it only knows people so it has not learned any proper social behaviour”.
So well done Team Bieber. Still, the pop teen just wants to put all this behind him. Accepting the award for something or other at the Billboard Music Awards at the weekend, Bieber said: “I really just want to say, it really should be about the music. It should be about the craft that I’m making. This is not a gimmick – I’m an artist, and I should be taken seriously. And all this other bull should not be spoken of”.
So, now you can see why he abandoned the monkey. Touring with an animal would clearly have looked like a gimmick and not at all becoming of a serious artist like our Justin.