Baboon on his way to vasectomy escapes with two female companions before procedure
A male baboon managed to escape with two female companions while on his way to a vasectomy.
Speaking to the Australian Associated Press, New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard revealed how a lock had failed either on the truck or crate that was holding the 15-year-old male and two female baboons just moments after they arrived at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.
“The three baboons decided to take a bit of a look around RPA grounds,” Hazzard told the outlet. “They didn’t know what to do nor did the people around them.”
The Sydney Morning Herald was able to obtain a video showing the trio running amok on hospital grounds as stunned people look on.
“Last I heard they’d had a good look around the precinct and ended up in the carpark where they were behaving far better than what we’d expect of baboons,” Hazzard told the Herald. “They obviously decided that inspecting the premises was an appropriate way to spend a couple of hours at the hospital.”
The bizarre baboon sightings were first reported by witnesses calling into Sydney radio station 2GB.
“Mate I’m deadset serious, I’m at RPA, I’m six floors up and I was just having a gaze out at the carpark … and there were three baboons in the carpark,” one witness said. “I’m deadset serious. They even had shiny red bottoms.”
After multiple failed attempts, responding officers summoned experts from Taronga Zoo to help round up the primates. They were subsequently sedated and brought back to the hospital.
The male baboon was slated for a vasectomy so he could live out the rest of his life "quietly and peacefully" with his troop in the suburb of Wallacia.
“They don’t want him to continue breeding with the small troop he’s in,” Hazzard told the outlet. “So in order for him to stay, the decision was taken that he should have a vasectomy.”
The health minister clarified that the females were there only to "keep him calm" before the procedure.