Owners fear for health of lemurs, marmosets, monkeys, birds and tortoises removed from site in incident police are treating as theft

Update on 7 March 2018: this story was found to be a hoax after detectives determined that Josue Santiago filed a false police report and that no animals had been stolen. Santiago has been charged with false reporting of a crime.

The advertisement on Craigslist was specific: “Free exotic animals. We’re a sanctuary going out of business. Go around back and help yourself.”



Early on Sunday morning, somebody did just that, driving a truck up to the rear gate of the We Care Wildlife Sanctuary in Miami and loading up seven ring-tailed lemurs, five marmosets, four monkeys, seven birds and 13 tortoises.

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The internet posting, however, was a fake. Now the sanctuary owners want their animals back, fearing they could die in days without the specialist care they need.

“We’ve been violated,” a sanctuary volunteer, Cindy Robert, said of the disappearance of the valuable animals, which is being treated by the Miami-Dade police department as a theft.

“I don’t think these animals are going to be taken care of. The stress alone could give some of them heart attacks.”

Detectives are looking into the theory that the entire episode was carefully planned, targeting those animals that would bring in the best return from dealers or collectors who trade in exotic species.

“They took the dollar animals. They knew exactly what they wanted,” said Robert, adding that the combined value of the lost animals would run to “thousands” of dollars.

“They left the raccoons, they left the horses, they left the goats, and there were some birds nesting in the tree that they didn’t see because it was pitch black. We did get to keep those, at least.

We have a tortoise that’s on antibiotics for a cold and needs needs injections every three days

“They’d have had to chase the animals around and net them, and put them in cages, and that puts them under even more stress. We have a tortoise that’s on antibiotics for a cold and needs needs injections every three days.

“There’s an umbrella cockatoo with food regression because the original owners weren’t taught how to wean her, and if you don’t feed her properly and soak her food she won’t eat – she’ll starve to death in a few days. We’re just heartbroken.”

Robert suspected the thieves used inside knowledge to set up an elaborate internet hoax that began with the hacking of We Care’s Facebook site a week ago and culminated in the fake Craigslist posting, which used the claim that the sanctuary was going out of business as a smokescreen.

Far from closing down, Robert said, the sanctuary is expanding, with the joint owners, Armando Mendez and Josue Santiago, having just moved most of the animals to larger premises.

The thieves, who removed bolts from a fence to gain access instead of breaking locks on the gate, probably knew that the new site was under construction and that security cameras had not yet been installed, Robert said.

“There’s a bit of history – the owners had been receiving threats. The detectives are going over all that and looking at pictures,” she said.

The Miami-Dade police department confirmed it was investigating the case but was unable to provide any more details. A reward of $1,000 has been offered to anyone who can help restore the lost animals to the sanctuary, and the Miami volunteers are reaching out to contacts from states as far away as Texas and Maryland to learn of anybody trying to offload those that were stolen.

Spotters will also be at Florida’s next exotic pet amnesty day in Poinciana, near Kissimmee, later this month to see if any of the stolen animals are turned in. The state has strict regulations on the keeping and care of non-native species kept in captivity and fines for those without licences.

“The owners can’t even talk about it, they’re so upset. The two of them are just basket cases,” Robert said.

“One can’t stop crying, he’s so attached to these animals. It’s a huge labour of love to these animals to protect them.”