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.
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.
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.