IKEA Monkey Rehomed In Sanctuary, Owner Distraught

The IKEA monkey who captured hearts across the globe after he went rogue in a Canada branch of the store has been taken from his current owners and placed in a sanctuary for his own safety, but the woman who cared for the macaque, now renamed “Darwin,” is distraught and hoping to be reunited with the tiny primate.

The IKEA monkey (who skyrocketed to fame after images of him toddling around the North York IKEA in an adorable jacket ping-ponged around the internet) belonged to a woman named Yasmin Nakhuda, who now says her monkey “can’t live without her.”

Darwin’s former owner, who was fined more than $200 for allowing the macaque to escape and risk injury to himself and humans when he decided to check out the Klippans, told local news sources the monkey should be allowed to decide his own fate.

Nakhuda says she and the IKEA monkey have bonded in the months they’ve spent together, and she implores:

“How do we know what he needs unless he’s given the right to choose? … I think he should be given the right to choose. If he chooses something else than me, that’s fine. For me, it has never been about me, it has always been about him.”

Previously, the IKEA monkey’s owner has explained that she babies the primate like an actual human baby:

“He is more than a handful: needs to be baby bottle fed night time and needs at least three diaper changes a day. He has to be with me all the time which means he goes with me to the office, sleeps with me, eats with me, showers with me, goes shopping with me.”

Do you think the IKEA monkey is safer in custody, or should he be returned to his previous owner?