Two nabbed over monkey burning video

Police have arrested two St Joseph men and slapped them with animal cruelty charges over a viral video in which a monkey was burned alive while others cheered, triggering public outrage.

The arrests follow police investigations into the video, circulated on WhatsApp, in which the green monkey, one of the island’s few surviving wildlife species, is caught in a metal cage, then doused with a substance and set on fire.

The men are 36-year-old Matthew Omar Downes of Pasture Land, Lammings and Rico Jamar Maynard, 30, of Airy Hill.

The duo is charged with wanton, cruel abuse, torture and causing unnecessary suffering to a monkey between April 3 and 20 in contravention of Section 3 Subsection (1) clause (a) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, Chapter 144A.

The accused were scheduled to appear at the District “D” Magistrate Court today.