An influencer is fighting to get back her internet-famous monkey, Jorgie Boy — even though the unpermitted pet was found deathly sick and malnourished in a car crash where his owner says she had passed out drunk.
Brandi Botello, 29, had her 3-year-old spider monkey with her over the weekend when they were in a single-car crash in Dallas, she confirmed to NBC Dallas Fort Worth.
The tattooed influencer was charged with driving under the influence — but insisted she was passed out in the passenger seat and slept through the crash she blamed on a “very drunk” friend.
Despite those legal woes, Botello says she is most upset about losing Jorgie Boy, the pet monkey she regularly posts photos of in outfits and strange locations — even though she does not have permits to keep him at home in Dallas suburb Irving, she admitted.
However, Jorgie Boy had fractured bones and weighed just 6 pounds — less than half the average weight of a spider monkey, according to the Funky Monkey Ranch sanctuary where he was taken for treatment.
He also had rickets, a bone disease caused by inadequate nutrition, as well as bad liver and pancreatic function, officials told the Dallas Morning News.
Funky Monkey Ranch owner Dwan Johns released the disturbing details as proof that the sickened animal should not be returned to the influencer, despite her appeals.
“Primates are not pets,” Johns said. “People think monkeys are fun and cute, and they treat them like accessories.”
Still, Botello continued begging for Jorgie Boy’s return — using the hashtag #FreeJorgieBoy online — insisting she is a “good mom” to him despite his condition and her recent arrest.
“I love him. I dress him up every day. I change his diapers, I shower him,” Botello told the local NBC affiliate. “I just want him home. I don’t feel like he should be anywhere but home. He’s more than just a monkey to me, he’s like my child.”
She vowed to do “anything and everything” to make things right, while also denying she was behind the wheel during the crash.
“I didn’t even know what was going on. I slept through the car accident. I didn’t even know we were in an accident,” Botello told NBC Dallas Fort Worth. “I wasn’t driving.”
Instead, she says a male friend — who was “very drunk” — was driving, and she only “hopped over to the driver’s seat” after the crash, without explaining why.
“I didn’t know we crashed in front of the police station. When I turned around there was a cop right there and he was trying to accuse me of driving, but I wasn’t driving,” she said.
Neither Botella nor Jorgie Boy were injured in the crash, and local news media were unable to corroborate the name of the drunk friend the influencer accused of being the real DUI driver.
Botello denied her pet was malnourished or sick — blaming his condition on separation anxiety — as she continued to fight for his return.
“He means more to me than anything in this world I’m not going to let one little mistake break me I’m willing to change anything and everything for him,” she wrote to her followers.
“Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is a real thing,” Botello continued. “I owned up to it … I know I’m a good mom … WE ALL KNOW that!” she said.
The incident comes just weeks after the euthanization of P’Nut the Squirrel in New York, whose owners were accused of harboring the widely-beloved animal illegally.