Heartwarming

This Family Kept Their "Pet" Monkey In A Tiny Cage For 12 Years

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Sii is an adorable Pigtailed macaque monkey who has been living with his family in Laos. Sadly, he was not treated like a normal pet - though his family loved him, Sii was kept in a small cage for 12 years, reports The Dodo.

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Source: LWRC

It is illegal to keep macaques as petsin South East Asia, although this happens all too often, and a team from theLaos Wildlife Rescue Center (LWRC) arrived to rescue Sii from his cramped living conditions at the beginning of the year. They wrote:

[The family] now realised both them and Sii needed help to resolve the situation they found themselves in.
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Source: LWRC

People like to keep these monkeys in their homes when they are babies, as they are extremely cute, but as they grow bigger, they become aggressive or difficult to manage. This is because they are not meant to be kept indoors or in cages and the animals becomefrustrated from not being able to move freely.

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Source: LWRC

Sii was likely removed from his wild habitat and taken away from his mother when he was just a tiny baby and had probably not seen another animal of his own kind for 12 years.

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Source: LWRC

The LWRC is low on funds at the moment, but they could not stand by as Sii was in desperate need of help. His family was emotional as they said goodbye, but everyone knew it was the best thing for the monkey.

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Source: LWRC

When he arrived at the sanctuary, he had to have various medical treatments for blindness in one eye as well as many broken, rotten teeth. These are the marks that captivity has left on him, even though the monkey is free now.

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Source: LWRC

His sweet nature has earned Sii the nickname 'the gentle giant' at the LWRC clinic, and also because he is the largest macaque that the team has ever rescued. They are sure he will soon be roaming free with others of his kind:

[...] We believe he has good chances to find himself in one of our primate fields soon enough.
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Source: LWRC

Sadly, not all stories end this way and thousands of monkeys are still illegally and cruelly held in small cages with no proper quality of life, because peoplethink it's 'cute' to have them as pets. Consider making a donation to theLaos Wildlife Rescue Center, who really need all the help they can get at the moment, to support them in their goal of saving mistreated monkeys in South East Asia.

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