Spokane Monkey Attack

In other Washington State primate news....a Spokane family's illegal pet monkey, escaped from their home Thursday and went on a biting rampage. A group of friends walking their dog first noticed the monkey running down the street.

"At first I thought it was cute, until it growled," said Grey Pressitin, who encountered the monkey on 16th Avenue. After the growling, the group realized the monkey might be aggressive and tried to run away from it. During their attempted escape, one of them tripped, and that's when the monkey made its first move: biting a young man on the thumb.

The young man who'd been walking his dog ran home to tell his mother that his friend had been bit by a monkey. Unsurprisingly, she didn't believe her son and decided to explore the situation on her own. She may have learned the hard (and certainly bizarre way) to trust her son. When the woman spotted the monkey exiting a neighbors home, she was charged by the animal, who grabbed her leg and bit it.

Now with the taste of blood, the monkey continued stalking the neighborhood. The third and final monkey attack victim was a teenage girl who also lived in the neighborhood. After wreaking sufficient havoc, the monkey was finally rounded up by Spokane Animal Control officers. The 15-pound macaque will be held for tests to make sure he didn't spread any diseases during his biting spree and while officials decide his fate. "We're still in the investigation as to what we're going to do because we haven't had a monkey ordeal like this before," said Spokane animal control officer Bryan Townsend. The Spokane family has had the monkey as a pet for five years, and he had never escaped before.

King Kong and the Windmill by Flickr User chicdecasa