ikea monkey toronto

Indiegogo campaign seeks new home for IKEA monkey

Before Rob Ford turned all of Toronto into a giant crack cocaine joke, our international claim to lame was a little monkey in a shearling jacket. (That, and maybe The Love Guru.) Darwin the macaque, better known as the IKEA Monkey, was found wandering in the store's Vaughan location in December 2012. He quickly became the star of his own thee-ring media circus when his eccentric owner launched a court battle to keep the monkey in her care.

He was rehomed to a primate sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont.; now, the owners of the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary have launched a campaign to find him a new home. The Darwin's Dreamers Indiegogo campaign is seeking to raise $490,000; if that seems like a lot for a single foot-tall monkey, it's because they're actually trying to relocate the entire sanctuary, complete with 21 other monkeys, thanks to "change in our human family situation." (What are those other 21 monkeys, chopped liver?)

Still, the "56 acres of rolling hills with trees aplenty" they're hoping to purchase sounds pretty nice - I can't begrudge Darwin a little extra elbow room after what he's had to put up with. Check out the campaign here.


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