Monkey Gets Bizarre Punishment, And Awful Crowd Gathers To Cheer

This was the sad scene that unfolded on February 5 in Mumbai, India, for one monkey who had become the scorn of a community.

According to local residents, this capture was a long time coming. For six months, the macaque, along with other monkeys, were allegedly causing trouble in the community with antics like stealing food and tearing up pillows that were for sale, AFP reported.

Residents complained to local government officials, who then brought in a professional monkey catcher (which is a thing in India, a country where monkeys mingling with humans is the norm), who lured the animal out with fruit as bait.

Bystanders actually cheered when the macaque was bound up tightly and had a rope placed around his neck before being caged. The monkey was clearly aggravated by the undoubtedly stressful situation — AFP reported that when one onlooker patted his forehead, the macaque hissed in return.

As AFP notes, monkeys are highly regarded in the Hindu religion and are often at the center of antics that disturb the peace — but rarely garner this much public humiliation. Only once the monkey was placed inside a cage was he freed from his bindings and given grapes to eat — in front of a crowd who despised him and wanted nothing more than to see him gone. As the photos below show, his sorrow spoke volumes.

Despite the cruel, public manner in which the primate was captured and paraded around, the city plans to set him up with a new life in the countryside.

"We will make sure it's fit and when it is we will release him on the outskirts of Thane," a state official from Mumbai's Maharashtra Forest Department told AFP. In India alone, there are seven major species of macaque who are native to the country.

It's unclear how long the macaque will remain caged until he is finally free, safe and permanently away from humans who took joy in not only treating him cruelly, but in taking his dignity away as well.