A monkey who plays Jack the Monkey in Pirates of the Caribbean bit the ear of a make-up artist on Tuesday at an Australian studio where the latest installment of the series is being filmed, according to reports.
Paramedics rushed the 54-year-old woman to a nearby hospital, where she was treated and is in stable condition. According to Queensland Ambulance Service.
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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the monkeys attacked employees around midday on a sound system installed near the Disney studios at Movie World on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane.
The film has already endured multiple animal-related controversies in a country with strict animal regulations, but the capuchin attack may be the worst headache yet.
The capuchin monkey known as Jack the Monkey from “Pirates of the Caribbean” looks into the camera at the 2011 premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” at Disneyland. One of the two monkeys currently being used in the movie attacked a woman on the set of the new movie series on Tuesday.
“The monkey came up behind the woman and bit her on the right ear,” Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson Stephen Burns told the ABC. “We believe that the woman was not trying to approach the monkey, but as she was sitting, the monkey approached her and bit her ear.”
Burns added that the woman, who has not yet been identified, was bleeding when paramedics arrived, but her injuries were not serious as paramedics stopped the bleeding. A 7 News helicopter captured footage of paramedics responding to her.
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.
Two precocious capuchin monkeys are currently taking turns playing Jack the Monkey, opposite Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa, who has appeared in the series’ previous four films.
Geoffrey Rush, who plays Captain Barbossa in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean,” poses next to one of the capuchin monkeys featured in the movie.
However, in February, animal rights activists asked the country’s federal environment minister to prevent filmmakers from using primates in their films, citing unnatural habitat on set. The petition was filed, ABC reported at the time.
“Capuchin monkeys naturally live in large family groups in the rainforests of Central and South America and have complex physical and psychological needs. Movie sets are no place for these intelligent, social animals. , the life of the monkey “actor” is sadly far away. They were taken away from the life they were meant to live,” said Cordelia Britton, Wild Futures’ campaign director.
According to IMDb, the film is titled “Dead Men Tell No Tales” and is scheduled to be released in July 2017.
Johnny Depp, the star of the series who plays Jack Sparrow, had his two Yorkshire terriers sent home in May after he clashed with Australian authorities for allegedly bringing the dogs into the country on a private jet without permission. Authorities have threatened to euthanize or isolate the dogs, and Depp could be fined A$340,000 (US$265,000) and jailed for up to 10 years.
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First published: June 30, 2015 at 3:15am
