Six marmoset monkeys watch a visitor through brown eyes the size of apple seeds, their smooth pink faces solemn as they cling to the bars of cages at the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter.
Unlike the dogs and cats penned elsewhere in the brick building, the monkeys aren’t up for adoption. They are illegal aliens, strangers in a state where residents are barred from keeping them.
Colorado doesn’t allow monkeys as pets, except for the Capuchin monkey and then only if it is trained as a service animal.
The marmosets “are probably going to an approved sanctuary in another state,” said Doug Kelley, the shelter’s director.
They came to the shelter after Denver Animal Control got a tip that they were being kept in the basement of a house on Olive Street.
The owner, Cassandra Tolmich, told authorities that she moved to Colorado from Florida and didn’t know they weren’t welcome here. She couldn’t be reached for comment.
Tolmich, who has been cited for having an outlawed animal, told Animal Control that she had been trying to send the animals to a zoo in Hawaii, but Kelley wasn’t able to confirm that.
Tolmich gave the shelter a supply of canned marmoset food when they moved to the shelter. “She wants what is best for the monkeys,” Kelley said.
The marmosets eat the food, but what they really like are hard-boiled eggs — and marshmallows. But marshmallows aren’t really healthy for the tiny beasts — each about the size of a squirrel — who thrive on insects, fruit and leaves in the wild.
With white tufts of hair poking up from around their ears like stubby bows, they are cute — if somewhat smelly — creatures.
Kelley had to move the animals to a back room away from the public eye because they were getting too much love from visitors. “They were too much of a draw to people. They were getting way too many marshmallows,” he said.
Tolmich has agreed to transport the animals to a new home.
Kelley had hoped too send the marmosets to a sanctuary in Maui, but the cost of transporting them and the difficulty in finding an airline willing to transport them scotched that plan, said Kelley.
Because this particular species of marmoset is very common, most zoos aren’t interested in taking the South American mammal, Kelley said.
But there are a number of sanctuaries throughout the country where Kelley believes they will find a home.
For now, the marmosets appear happy to hang out in Denver, except for one male.
“He is kind of mean,” Kelley said. “He will try to bite you.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
