MUNICH, Germany - Custom officials in Germany plan to make Justin Bieber pay up the next time he sets foot on German soil.
The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation is going public with a $1,500 bill for Justin Bieber, meant to cover costs associated with caring for the pop star’s capuchin monkey Mally.
“They have ways to get the money back,” spokesperson Franz Boehmer told NBC News.
The monkey was confiscated at Munich airport during the singer’s European tour last March, because Bieber failed to produce the vaccination and import papers necessary for bringing a monkey into the country. “The European Union also has a strict ban on keeping monkeys by private people,” Boehmer said.
Unable to find a legal mailing address for Bieber, they decided to post a public notice of the bill urging the singer to get in touch with the German agency, Boehmer said. In addition to the newly issued bill, the singer still has a separate outstanding bill of $6,500 from the customs agency for Mally's early care, even though Bieber had finally surrendered the animal to a shelter.
Boehmer said the monkey is now in good hands at a German zoo, getting integrated into a group of other capuchin monkeys. “We want to make sure it is in adequate animal housing,” he said. Boehmer did not disclose the exact location. “We don’t need screeching teenage girls at the monkey enclosure,” he said. “And you can’t tell that it was Justin Bieber’s monkey, anyway – they all look pretty much the same.”
Although incognito, Mally is back in front of an audience, at last, even if it’s only in front of a couple of visitors to a German zoo.