A caged monkey left behind on a London bus has sparked an urgent hunt for answers — and a reward of up to £3,000 (€3,509) for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
The female common marmoset was found last Friday on a 302 bus as it waited in Kensal Rise, north-west London.
The discovery came after a mother was unable to push her buggy along the aisle because a laundry bag was protruding from the luggage bay.
When the driver moved the bag aside, the monkey — later named Oyster, after the London travel card — began “chirping and jumping”.
After being examined by a vet, Oyster was rehomed at a sanctuary. She did not have a microchip.
The RSPCA said the monkey was terrified after being left inside a cage (Photo credit: RSPCA)
Animal charity Peta has put forward the reward in an effort to identify whoever abandoned her.
Chief Inspector Dew said investigators will review CCTV footage and check the bus’s scan-on and scan-off records “to see if we can locate the person who left her onboard”, adding: “It was clearly intentional.”
Peta Vice-President of Programmes Elisa Allen urged anyone with knowledge of the incident to contact authorities “so that whoever abandoned Oyster can be held accountable before endangering anyone else”.
“Abandoning an animal is an extraordinary betrayal. This monkey deserved care and protection, not to be discarded like rubbish,” she said.
The RSPCA said it fears this could be the “first of many” abandonments following new legislation introduced in April requiring that all primates kept in England are licensed.
