Florida wildlife sanctuary animal 'theft' declared hoax

The mysterious disappearance of dozens of exotic animals from a Florida wildlife sanctuary after a fake “help yourself” advertisement appeared online has been solved, according to detectives: the alleged late-night theft was nothing more than monkey business contrived by the sanctuary’s owner.

Josue Santiago, 41, head of the We Care Wildlife Sanctuary, remained in his own cage at the Miami-Dade county jail on Wednesday, charged with the false reporting of a crime. Meanwhile, seven ring-tailed lemurs, five marmosets, three red-handed tamarins, a white-faced capuchin and assorted other “stolen” animals, including rare birds and tortoises, worth a combined $53,400, were being cared for at a refuge in North Carolina, where Santiago is alleged to have taken them before returning to Miami and staging Sunday’s break-in.

“All animals are safe and being attended to,” detective Argemis Colome told the Guardian in a statement. “Detectives determined that Santiago filed a false police report and provided false information during the course of their investigation.”

The inquiry began on Sunday when Santiago called police to report the theft, and told them that somebody had posted a fake ad on the Craigslist website, falsely claiming the sanctuary was going out of business and that its animals were free to anyone who wanted to collect them.

But according to Colome, police quickly established that the Florida fish and wildlife commission were already investigating. “The sanctuary had several exotic animals previously removed by authorities,” he said, adding that Santiago staged the burglary “to avoid further sanctions for the remaining animals.”

Cindy Robert, who has worked as a volunteer at the sanctuary for two years, referring to the authorities’ allegations, said she felt betrayed. “I’m now finding out how much they lied to me and I’m sick to my stomach. I’ve been crying all day,” she said.

Robert said most of the missing animals were on medication or special diets and would die if not cared for properly. She revealed one of the missing birds, a white umbrella cockatoo with food rejection issues, was returned anonymously in a cage to the sanctuary on Tuesday.