Was Thabo the monkey STOLEN? Vervet that’s amassed a huge TikTok following with owner who claims he ‘rescued’ him from a lab may have been snatched from Florida colony five years ago

Biologists have said a TikTok viral monkey may have been stolen from a colony in Florida, despite its owner’s claims that he rescued the baby vervet from a laboratory.

TikToker Kim Raymond Feaste, 31, has amassed more than 3.4 million followers on the account he shares with his pet monkey ‘Thabo’.

On the account, called Thabo and Ray, Feaste uploads videos of his five-year-old vervet monkey running free, going to Walmart and eating chicken wings.

Feste claims to have rescued his TikTok co-star from a Las Vegas laboratory where the monkey’s mother was allegedly murdered.

However, expert biologists who are skeptical of Feste’s claims say this is not likely.

“Labs don’t give away monkeys,” Dr. Deborah “Missy” Williams, an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University who has overseen the Dania Beach monkey colony since 2014, at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “They euthanize them,” she added.

Williams accuses Feaste of taking the vervet from the Dania Beach monkey colony near the Fort Lauderdale airport five years ago.

The biologist has sent complaints to police across the country and emails to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission detailing her claims.

Between videos that Feaste, who is originally from Tampa, has taken at the colony and her own suspicions, Williams has no concrete evidence to support her theory.

Feste insists Thabo was not from Fort Lauderdale, and his critics have no evidence that he was.

When asked for proof that the monkey came from a laboratory, Feaste said: “No such paperwork is needed or required by any government agency under which Thabo’s property would have fallen. If it was, I’d have it.’

Feaste says that even if Thabo came from the colony in Fort Lauderdale, taking the monkey would not be illegal because vervet monkeys are not protected. He also claims to have the permit necessary to capture the animal.

“If there was an injured monkey in Fort Lauderdale, I could literally put it in my possession and at that point it would be illegal for me to release it and not keep it,” he said.

FWC officials declined to comment on the situation, stating they do not comment on active investigations, but did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation.

Feste addressed Williams’ allegations in a TikTok. “Deborah has been stalking us for eight months now,” he claimed in the caption of a video of Thabo wearing a diaper.

“Deborah needs to mind her business and leave you and the baby alone,” one user commented.

In one of the most shocking videos uploaded to the TikTok account, Thabo sits behind the wheel of a car, steering the vehicle as it travels down the road.

Another shows Thabo jumping around a Walmart store, sitting on computer screens, climbing shelves and jumping into ball pits.

Feaste regularly shares food with Thabo, sharing videos of the pair eating watermelon, chicken wings and even a lollipop.

Thabo and the other monkey from the Dania Beach colony were originally imported from Africa for medical research, but then escaped from the farm where they lived in the 1940s, according to scientists.

The monkeys now live in relative freedom among the mangroves and industrial warehouses near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Williams protects the monkeys and feeds them bananas and other local business owners protect them.

“They’re my babies,” said Rebecca Knowles, a fleet maintenance coordinator at an environmental company where about 20 of the monkeys live. “If I have a bad day here, I walk outside and see them playing and stuff, like little people.”

Living in a densely populated urban area, a number of monkeys have unfortunately died in car accidents or as a result of electrocution from power lines.

Animal advocates insist that Thabo, regardless of his origins, belongs in the wild and not as a pet.

Vervet monkeys become too aggressive for their owners at the age of five, Thabo’s current age.

Owners are forced to remove their teeth or get rid of the animals completely if they become too violent.

Feste emphasizes that this is not a problem with Thabo. “My monkey is well cared for,” he said. “We live in mansions, have a lot of money and live a good life.”

‘There are monkeys who open their brains and… [they’re] We’re putting microchips in it in labs right now,” Feste said, “but you’re worried about Thabo and Ray from the Internet.”