A woman who jumped into a monkey exhibit at the El Paso Zoo has been fired from the law firm where she worked. 

Lucy Rae climbed over the fencing to feed the squirrel monkey’s hot Cheetos. Signs inform visitors not to feed the animals as they are on restricted diets. But, Rae didn’t feel that applied to her as she broke in and then fed two primates named Libby and Sunday. 

Publicly Fired From Law Firm

It didn’t take long for her to be identified as the shocking video quickly went viral. 

The Lovett Law Firm announced her firing in a heavy-handed Facebook post. Before being fired, she was a litigation assistant in the firm’s personal injury division.

The timing is poor since she might need a good lawyer. The zoo is pressing charges. 

“She was attempting to feed them Hot Cheetos, [but], it is still unclear if they actually ate any,” Joe Montisano, director of the zoo said. “From the video, they were more disturbed with her being there than concerned with the food.” 

“Lucky” And “Stupid”

Montisano also called the intruding woman “lucky” and “stupid” as squirrel monkeys can be violent. While this ended much better for Libby and Sunday, it reminds many of Harambe’s fate. 

“This young lady decided to hop a fence, climb through some bushes, drop down into a four-feet deep moat, walk across the moat and then try to feed the spider monkeys,” the Zoo Director said about Lucy Rae. 

RELATED: Bindi Irwin Becomes Emotional As She Talks About How Late Father Steve Would Be With Her Baby

Montisano wasn’t the only zoo employee speaking to the media about this breach of trust. 

“It takes years to build trust with these animals and for someone to come in there for five minutes for a video on Instagram or whatever just ruins years of work,” zookeeper Mason Kleist said.

“It’s going to take a long time to get them back to where they were and training,” he continued.

Kleist also said, “These are primates we’re talking about, they could do some substantial damage to you. They may be small monkey’s but they can take you to the ground if they wanted to.”

Ultimately, Lucy Rae was ratted out by her own friends who contacted the zoo after watching the video on Instagram which you can watch below. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by The Real Fit Fam El Paso (@fitfamelpaso)

Friends Ratted Her Out To The Zoo

“Your friends will rat you out in a heartbeat,” Zoo Director Montisano said. “We had about six to eight people call on Sunday. I know more about this young lady than I do about my own daughter probably.”

RELATED: WHOA! Two Elephants Prove They’re NOT the Sweet, Slow Creatures You See at the Zoo!

There hasn’t been an incident with the public in the 30 years the monkey exhibit has been at the zoo.

Then, Lucy Rae came along. Thanks to her, the zoo is forced to consider changes that will limit the public’s ability to see these monkeys so clearly.

The El Paso Zoo might be putting up a taller fence to keep people like Rae out. This punishes visitors who follow the rules as they would likely have a restricted view with a taller fence. 

More information on this is in the news video below. 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: