Pair on trial over monkey cruelty

A monkey sold to a South Staffordshire woman from a Midlands house was crippled, with seven broken bones caused by a disease brought on by a vitamin deficiency, a court was told.

The four-month-old marmoset, named Mikey, walked "like a soldier doing a commando crawl" and later had to be put down by the RSPCA.

The marmoset had been bred by Julie Jones and Lee Powell at their home in Sunderland Drive, Stourbridge, magistrates in Dudley were told.

In the South American rain forests, marmosets live on insects, sap and fruit and, because they need sun and ultra violet light, Vitamin D3 is essential to their diet, said Mr Nick Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA.

Jones, aged 42, and Powell, 50, each deny two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a marmoset and two of not taking reasonable steps to ensure the animal was fed appropriately or protected from pain, injury or suffering.

Mr Sutton said Sheila Lister, from Essington, near Cannock, bought the monkey in June after seeing a newspaper ad. But the court heard she later visited an exotic animal specialist in Wolverhampton and cried when she saw how other, healthy marmosets acted.

The trial continues.