The Monkey Mum

I would consider myself a mother to these monkeys. The alpha monkey mom. Good morning. Want a pancake? Pinky Janota is mother to two children and six monkeys. Some of my day-to-day activities are wrestling with these guys. Feeding them, clothing them, changing their diapers, giving them baths. Maybelline, the primate, was sick the other day so it was like any other child at that point and she just wanted to be held. No. I couldn't picture doing anything else with my life but dedicating it to saving animals. The 53-year-old runs a shelter for abandoned and rescued animals with her husband in Beecher, Illinois. Her six monkeys arrived in her care having been mistreated in the past. You're going to meet today some of our primates, Max, Maybelline, L'Oreal and Ava. Pinky's primates have proved the truth behind the phrase monkey see, monkey do, mimicking their owner's behavior. We teach them sign language so that they can communicate with us. They learn more and food, love, brush, bath, your basic words. Maybelline has nine words down. The other three are learning. Slowly, Maybelline seems to excel a little bit. They know how to open their cages so we have to put little hasps on the cages. I do communicate with them as far as the discipline goes if they're being little stinkers with my actions or showing my teeth or grunting at them and that does show them that I'm the alpha primate. Being a monkey mom is a full-time job. To make sure they don't go bananas, Pinky needs to be around them for 12 to 14 hours a day. And she is even prepared to sacrifice her own creature comforts to ensure her brood don't go without. We do lose a lot of sleep. We go broke a lot of times. If it comes to an animal needing a surgery, the mortgage payment, electric bill are put on the back burner and the animal has a surgery. It's very frustrating. If you want to go out to dinner or do something, you have to hire a babysitter. And you have to have somebody who knows the monkeys. With the monkeys, it's pretty much everything. It's getting them up, getting them dressed, getting their diapers changed, their bottles, their breakfast, making them their plates, interacting with them out there, working on their sign language. It's just like taking care of a baby. The sanctuary takes care of monkeys that have been rescued or abandoned after becoming unwanted presents or black market purchases. One of our latest primates coming in was purchased on Craigslist. And the woman realised it was a lot for her to handle. It's like having a two-year-old child on steroids. Every one of the primates that we have at the facility today were a victim of abuse. Some of them have lost half an ear. Some of them have lost parts of their tails, had them amputated. Max, his tail was broken in three places. The last two inches were amputated. And while exotic animal ownership remains a controversial topic in the US, and Pinky has faced some criticism in the past about the way she cares for her animals, she is passionate in her defence of the sanctuary. Yeah, we do receive criticism about taking the animals in. And my only thought and opinion on that is I did not purchase these animals. I did not bring them in to the United States. They're born and bred right here. People are constantly selling them. And yes, we do dress our primates because they take their diapers off faster than you can put them on. The monkeys will live at Settler's Pond permanently, and the sanctuary is looking to add to its monkey family in the future. What it's like being a mom to these monkeys is it's a job that nobody can fathom and nobody can understand the bonds that you have or what you give up or what you wouldn't do for them. I would do that for all of my animals, not just my primates. Can they all get what you wanted? Good girl. What you got Lolo? You got a toy?