Justin Bieber has been hit with a bill for thousands of dollars by the German animal shelter where his confiscated pet monkey has been held for two months.
The 19-year-old singer has until midnight to reclaim Mally, a capuchin monkey, and will have to pay up for his care even if he does not take the animal back.
The 19-year-old singer has until midnight to reclaim Mally, a capuchin monkey, and will have to pay up for his care even if he does not take the animal back.
Mally will be transferred to a permanent home at a German zoo or animal park if Bieber does not take him back in time.
'If no further documents arrive then the seizure order comes into effect and the animal becomes the property of the German state,' said Munich customs office spokesman Thomas Meister.
Mally was seized by German customs March 28 when Bieber failed to produce required vaccination and import papers after landing in Munich while on tour.
The monkey was given to the singer for his 19th birthday last month from music producer Jamal 'Mally Mal' Rashid and had been taken away from his mother when he was only nine weeks old.
The now 20-week-old animal was quarantined and cared for at Munich's animal shelter, where manager Karl Heinz Joachim said Mally had fared well and gained weight.
The shelter has criticized Bieber for keeping such a young monkey as a pet, saying it shouldn't have been taken away from its mother until it was a year old.
Experts say capuchin monkeys also need to be kept in groups as they are very sociable animals.
'The best thing would be not to buy one at all, but if you do, buy five,' said Mr Joachim.
He said emails from Bieber's management to the animal shelter indicated the singer does not want the monkey anymore, but that the final decision would have to be made by German authorities.
'Our contact is the person that the monkey belongs to,' said Mr Meister.
'We've had contact with lots of people but none of them was an authorised representative.'
He said the cost of care, food and vet visits at the Munich shelter amounted to several thousand (dollars).
'You can bet we are going to ask for that money back,' he said.
Read more: MailOnline
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