Carlos Spencer was born early 15 January 2004. It was apparent immediately that he faced physical challenges and he was taken from his mother at two weeks old to ensure his survival. As he has grown and developed he exhibited neurological and physical problems that included a physical disability with his legs and feet, and he has epileptic type seizures. It was and is very apparent that Carlos is a special little character who needs constant care and attention.

We have had a full range of tests done with the assistance of Veterinary Specialist Group, Auckland Radiology and a consultant Neurological Pediatric specialist from Wilson Home. Many of the tests carried out have been part of an elimination program to ensure he was not given inappropriate drugs for his condition.

These tests have eliminated all known or common physical problems that could have occurred. We have results from blood tests, x-ray's, ultrasounds and his full MRI brain scan. Our specialist vet has researched and been in contact with associates around the world about Capuchin monkeys. There is a huge amount of interest worldwide in the results we have available to us, especially the ultrasound pictures and MRI Scan's. Due to costs, these type of tests are not traditionally run by people with monkeys as pets, of which there are 10's of thousands worldwide, or by zoo's around the world.

Also not many people or zoo's can commit the amount of human resource that has been required to care-give this one little monkey.

I am also in the process of getting a web page up and running on Carlos. We would like to make all our information, tests results, scans and images available worldwide to aid in education and primate knowledge.

Carlos is now 18 months old. He has been on Epilim for the past 6 months. His progress has been constantly monitored. The drugs have helped mainly with his manic/neurotic behaviour. The seizures seem to be approximately 14 days apart. Normally these seizures last for about 2-4 minutes. On the 17 June he was taken to the vets after fitting for approx 20 minutes. He spent the weekend heavily sedated. The main concern is that these long seizures will "burn" the brain.

The human resources required to give Carlos the attention requires is putting a huge strain on Mark Vette and the zoo staff. As the primary caregivers for Carlos and after consultation with Mark and the Zoo curator, we believe that the best thing for Carlos would be for us to remain his full-time caregivers.

To take over full time care we need to build a MAF approved containment facility to enable us to permanently house Carlos.To be able to get MAF approval to transfer Carlos from the zoo and set up new "hang out", I will need to build a Zoo. This will be to MAF regulations. The Carlos monkey cage will cost me about $4,000, not to mention the rest! Would your people like to look at sponsoring his enclosure...or part of it? I would also like to get special permission to be able to take him to work with special needs associations, hospitals and schools. This will mean a life changing, long term commitment from us and we want to make it clear, we are willing to do anything legally required to be able to have Carlos and be his caregivers for the rest of his life.

We understand that Carlos may not survive for very long, however, as a capuchin's life span could be up to 40 years in captivity he may live longer, and will certainly have an unequalled quality of life with us.

We love him. He is adorable. We can provide and want to provide for him.