Ever wondered what a complete and total lack of common sense looks like?
Most of us respect the very obvious rule not to break into the animal enclosures at the zoo. After all, they keep us safe from the animals as much as the other way around. Yet periodically, there’s always a story about some jerk visiting the zoo who hops the fence and tries their luck anyway. Still, this story is unique for what Texas woman Lucy Rae decided to do once she got in the El Paso Zoo’s spider monkey enclosure: she started feeding them HOT CHEETOS.
Check out the jaw dropping footage (below):
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WHY would she do this, and WHY would she think it was a good idea to give an animal a snack that is notoriously harsh on HUMAN stomachs? These are the questions we have for Lucy, whom zoo director Joe Montisano described to ABC7 as “stupid and lucky.”
Zookeeper Mason Kleist told the outlet:
“These are primates we’re talking about, they could do some substantial damage to you. They may be small monkey’s but they can take you to the ground if they wanted to.”
Unsurprisingly, Kleist noted that the Hot Cheetos were NOT part of the spider monkey’s diet and could cause them stomach problems and bowel disruptions. On top of that, her close proximity put the creatures at risk of COVID-19. The zookeeper explained:
“Anything that we have they could get as well so Covid is no different. We took the necessary steps to prevent them from getting that, so for someone to just go in there and give them food from their hands could just ruin that.”
He added:
“It takes years to build trust with these animals and for someone to come in there for five minutes for a video on Instagram or whatever just ruins years of work. It’s going to take a long time to get them back to where they were and training.”
Lucy’s (former) place of work, The Lovett Law Firm, were actually the ones to identify the monkey-feeding menace to ABC7 — after they fired her. She was a litigation assistant in the firm’s personal injury division, an ironic position considering the trouble she’s in now for disregarding all possible danger to herself for the strange stunt.
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A firm spokesperson told the outlet that Lucy was fired on Monday after she was recognized from the footage. They stated the firm “didn’t condone Rae’s actions or have any advanced knowledge of her intentions.” Meanwhile, law enforcement confirmed that the zoo had filed a complaint and the case was under investigation, with the possibility of criminal charges to follow.
All this for a chance to feed monkeys Hot Cheetos… we hope it was worth it, though we can’t imagine how it would be. She should just be glad she got out of the situation safely, TBH!
Ch-ch-check out more on the story (below):
[Image via ABC7/YouTube & Cheetos]
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