2 Americans fined $2,400 each for intruding into monkey Punch’s enclosure at Japanese zoo
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Punch, a Japanese macaque known for clinging to a stuffed orangutan, embracing other macaques at Ichikawa City Zoo on March 26.
PHOTO: REUTERS
CHIBA – Two US nationals were each fined 300,000 yen (S$2,400) after being arrested for a misdemeanour involving trespassing into a monkey enclosure housing a baby macaque named Punch at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo.
The Chiba local prosecutors’ office filed a summary indictment against a 24-year-old university student and a 27-year-old company executive at the Chiba Summary Court on June 5.
The two trespassed into the enclosure, where internet sensation Punch and other monkeys are kept, and disrupted the zoo’s business on May 17.
Punch became famous worldwide for clinging to a large stuffed orangutan as if it were his mother and trying hard to blend in with the group.
The summary court imposed the fines on the two on June 5, and both paid them the same day. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK


