MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – On TikTok, Ray Feaste and his vervet monkey, Thabo, have amassed over 3,000,000 followers. From sharing fried chicken to Thabo sprinting through hotel rooms, their videos have gone viral.
Now biologists and monkey experts are raising questions about the well-being of the monkey and where Feaste got him.
Over 70 years ago, African vervet monkeys were imported to the Dania Chimpanzee Farm for polio vaccine research. Some of those monkeys escaped and became a wild population near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the only one in America.
Ray Feaste, Thabo’s owner, says a lab gave him his monkey.
“His mom died in a lab when he was a baby, and that’s how I ended up with him,” Feaste explained in a Zoom interview.
According to Feaste, a lab in Las Vegas gave him the emaciated baby monkey about five years ago. He claims to be qualified to care for Thabo, but this account has raised eyebrows among experts.
Dr. Pete Otovic, a veterinarian specializing in monkeys, disputes Feaste’s story.
“In none of those circumstances would any of those facilities ever give their baby monkey away,” he stated.
Typically, lab monkeys are either euthanized or sent to sanctuaries, not given to private individuals.
Dr. Missy Williams, founder of the Vervet Monkey Sanctuary in Dania Beach, has studied the local vervet monkey population for over a decade and suspects Thabo may have been taken from the Dania Beach colony.
“Labs don’t give away monkeys,” she said.
Williams says Thabo bit a woman in North Carolina. Feaste said Thabo was spooked by the woman’s dog, leading to the bite.
Local 10 News looked into Feaste’s past and found in 2013, he was arrested in southwest Florida for allegedly stealing turtle eggs, though the case was eventually dropped.
Despite Thabo’s online popularity, experts like Williams and Otovic disagree with private monkey ownership. They stress that keeping monkeys as pets is dangerous and detrimental to their well-being.
“I am more concerned about the message that he is sending to his followers, that it is okay to own a monkey,” Williams said.
The exotic pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, but biologists and primate experts warn of its risks. The Humane Society of the United States highlights that pet ownership can be harmful to both the animals and their human owners.
Feaste’s account of Thabo’s origins remains unverified.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has stated that Feaste is not currently under investigation for the illegal possession of Thabo. However, they remain tight-lipped about any pending inquiries.