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Narrator: ABC36's Greg Stotelmeyer was there as a Frankfort woman made the difficult decision
to give up her pet - an exotic pet which is illegal in Kentucky.
The cage is for Caleb, an African green monkey known as a vervet.
Candace: "It's basically like giving up one of your kids."
Candace Ballinger is voluntarily surrendering her pet monkey. Exotic pets, like primates,
bears, tigers and lions are illegal to bring into or keep in Kentucky.
Fish & Wildlife official Jason Wells: "She is doing the right thing."
Still, this is not easy for Ballinger and her three kids.
Candace: "My kids can't be home from school today."
It began as a babysitting favor for the woman who brought the then-fourteen week old monkey
into Kentucky illegally. It's now six months later.
Candace: "If I go to jail, I'm still not going to have him, so I would rather surrender him
and know he's not with the woman who purchased him, he's not being found stranded, he's being
cared for."
The conservation officer handling the case says Ballinger will not be charged.
Jason Wells: "With her cooperation, we can get this animal to a place it needs to be
and where it's safe, and they can handle him safer around people."
"Safe" is a sanctuary run by April Truitt.
Candace Ballinger has Caleb's diaper bag packed.
Candace: "It's his favorite toy, a stuffed lion."
April Truitt: "We're going to take him back to the sanctuary, get him situated, he'll
go into quarantine."
Caleb may live the rest of his life here at the Primate Rescue Center in Jessamine County,
a non-profit, government licensed facility for monkeys and apes.
Nicole Bregler: "These monkeys are very social, and they need other monkeys of their own kind
to live a normal life, which what we can provide here."
There are three other vervet monkeys at the Rescue Center. Hope is, they will become Caleb's
new family.
April Truitt: "They really do best in the company of others that look like them and
smell like them."
Still, because of a hodgepodge of state laws, the exotic pet trade will continue across
the U.S., much to the chagrin of the people who work here.
Nicole Bregler: "They are cute when they're little, and that's undeniable. But they grow
up, and that's also undeniable."
Because here, they know "cute" can turn dangerous - quick.
Greg Stotelmeyer, ABC36, your local news source.
Narrator: The ban on exotic pets in Kentucky became law in 2005. It makes it illegal to
import inherently dangerous exotic animal into Kentucky. According to the executive
director of the Primate Rescue Center, more than twenty states now regulate the exotic
pet trade in various ways.