Texas celebrity who lost her monkey after drunken car crash was desperate to get the sick animal back

A spider monkey belonging to a Dallas-area influencer was suffering from an illness caused by malnutrition when police took it from its owner over the weekend, authorities said.

The monkey, named Jorgie Boy, was taken from his owner, Brandi Botello, Saturday morning after Dallas police responded to a single-vehicle crash. In the statement made by the police, it was stated that the driver was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.

Police did not identify the driver in their statement. Botello told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth He claimed he was charged with DWI but was not driving. He said he was drunk at the time of the crash and passed out in the passenger seat while holding the nearly 3-year-old spider monkey.

“I didn’t even know what was going on. I slept through the car accident. I didn’t even know we had an accident,” he told the station. “I wasn’t driving.”

He said he got into the driver’s seat after the accident.

“I jumped into the driver’s seat. I didn’t know we had crashed in front of the police station. When I turned around, there was a cop there and he was trying to accuse me of driving, but I wasn’t driving,” he said, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

Botello told the station that the driver was a male acquaintance and was accused of being drunk in public.

Neither the people nor the monkey in the car were seriously injured, police said.

Dallas police said the monkey was transferred to Irving’s animal control department because Botello lived in neighboring suburban Irving.

Irving police said Thursday that Jorgie Boy was diagnosed with rickets, which they describe as “a bone disease caused by malnutrition.” The police department said he was being cared for “at an undisclosed wildlife preserve in Texas.”

Dwan Johns of Funky Monkey Ranch near Fort Worth, Texas confirmed to NBC News that Jorgie Boy is now in their care.

Johns also confirmed that Jorgie Boy weighed 6 pounds (less than half that of an average spider monkey) and had minor fractures to his bones, a metabolic bone disease caused by malnutrition, and elevated liver and pancreatic levels.

Johns told NBC News that Jorgie Boy was legally released to him from Irving Animal Control on Saturday. He said local animal controllers in cities where owning wild animals is prohibited cannot handle “wild exotic dangerous animals,” which spider monkeys are classified as, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Johns said the monkey will not be returned to its previous owner. Dallas Morning News reported.

“I immediately added him to my USDA license on our farm. So he’s staying here legally,” Johns told NBC News. He declared that the city could “euthanize Jorgie Boy without cause” because Botello had illegally adopted him in a city where spider monkeys are banned.

“Fortunately, we were ready to accept it,” Johns said.

It is legal in Texas owning some exotic animalsincluding monkeys, with permission, but city of irving prohibits the ownership of wild animals.

Botello has 43,000 Instagram followersHe reposts his followers’ stories with the hashtag “#FreeJorgieBoy”.

“This ugly, depressing feeling of loneliness inside me is the worst,” Botello wrote on Instagram, but said he “won’t stop trying.”

“Then it means more to me “There is nothing in this world, I will not let a small mistake break me, I am ready to change everything for him,” he wrote.

“Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a real thing,” Botello continued. “I own that… I know I’m a good mother… WE ALL KNOW that!”

Jorgie Boy has his own online presence. Instagram account has nearly 6,000 followers featuring her photos wearing pajama sets, take a bath And Dressing with Botellowho is there his name is tattooed on his back.

The story of Jorgie Boy, PeanutOfficials have a famous squirrel on Instagram seized and euthanized After authorities received reports that Peanut’s owner was illegally keeping wild animals at his home.