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Tim Stark of the now-closed Wildlife in Need in Charlestown, Indiana, has apparently violated a court order by exhibiting his pet monkey on Facebook live.
A 2021 court ruling banned Stark from “acquiring, owning, and exhibiting any exotic or native animals, including all mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.”
On January 12, 2022, Stark posted a Facebook live video that included his four-year-old pet spider monkey named “Digimon.”
“I have 100% faith in myself allowing Mark to interact with this monkey because I know my monkey,” Stark said in the now-deleted video.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office removed animals from Wildlife in Need in 2020 after suing Stark for animal abuse. The abuse included incidents where Stark punched a sloth in the face and beat a leopard cub to death with a baseball bat. Stark was also accused of misappropriating funds from his nonprofit to pay personal expenses.
Court records indicate numerous animals went missing from Wildlife in Need before they could be removed. Those animals included six spider monkeys, two toucans, one pied crow, one African grey parrot, two macaws, one caracal, one ocelot, three fishing cats, two cougars, two Asian small-clawed otters, one prehensile porcupine and two African crested porcupines.
Numerous other animals were found in a box truck located near Stark’s property and were recovered.
Stark previously refuted allegations that he had hid the animals. However, the Facebook live video that Stark posted today appears to confirm that Stark did hide the missing animals and now has at least one of them in his possession, in direct violation of a court order.