Has Justin Bieber Abandoned His Monkey? [Updated]

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According to Rolling Stone, Justin Bieber's management company has told the shelter currently housing Mally, his 20-week-old capuchin monkey, that Bieber doesn't want the animal and that it should be placed in a zoo. Mally was quarantined by German customs officials in March after Bieber arrived in that country without the necessary monkey paperwork. It is apparently not illegal to bring monkeys to Germany as long as you follow the rules, although the answer to that question has not been very easy to locate.

money to germany

Google should know by now not to ask me these questions

But the Biebs doesn't follow your "rules," so the monkey was confiscated, and he also doesn't go back to pick up his monkeys, so this one's been stuck in a German shelter ever since. Bieber left Germany long ago for the next leg of his tour (he's currently somewhere between Johannesburg and San Diego), but Mally is still in Munich.

According to some reports, Justin originally had his people call the monkey's people and say that he wanted the monkey back, but Rolling Stone now says they have told the shelter to send it to the zoo. This might or might not be in response to criticism from animal-welfare groups that have argued monkeys should not be kept as pets at all, much less dragged along "on a world tour as a fashion accessory for a pop star," as the shelter's director put it. "It is madness," he continued. "But sadly, stupid things rarely go [sic] punished." Unfortunately true.

Speaking of stupid things being punished, Bieber may owe up to $50,000 euros for the monkey-related customs violation, on top of the "several thousand dollars" the shelter is claiming as the cost of caring for the animal over the past six weeks. (I guess it is used to first-class treatment.) Presumably he would have to pay that if he does decide to pick up his monkey, which a customs spokesman said he must do by midnight tonight.

In other news, a recent poll found that "Americans are united in their dislike" for Bieber, with only 20 percent saying they viewed him positively versus 54 percent negatively. To put that in some perspective, his positive rating is only seven points higher than convicted woman-puncher Chris Brown's. In fact,

Bieber was the only artist who had a majority unfavorability rating across all party lines – a majority of Democrats (23-54), Republicans (17-52), and independents (18-56) all reported negative views of the singer.

That's probably why only eight percent said they'd most like to see him as President (their choices were limited to music stars), one point less than Lady Gaga. Monkeygate is not going to do him any favors in that regard, but then 2016 is still a few years away.

Update: "The monkey belongs to Germany now." —Judith Brettmeister, the shelter's spokesperson, somehow managing to make that sound a little sinister.