Allen Hirsch is a well known portrait artist, better known for his love with a capuchin called Benjamin. The story I am about to describe is from a documentary from New York Times, called Long Live Benjamin. While visiting his wife’s hometown in Venezuela, he unexpectedly fell in love with an orphaned newborn capuchin. His wife was first to find Benjamin, without any food or water and took care of him, thinking that they would hand over the monkey to animal services. However, the love between Allen and Benjamin grew stronger and Benjamin became a part of the family. Allen was not able to leave Benjamin in Venezuela and so he brought him home to New York where he lived for many years.
People all across the world fall in love with animals and regard them as family members. What makes Allen’s case so different? Well, he goes a few steps further than an average pet owner would, however, at the end of the day both Benjamin and Allen bonded like two best friends.
In a recent survey conducted by Scientific American Mind, students examined how 90 percent of pet owners consider their pets as family members.
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There are hundreds of articles online where couples have monkeys as pets. Many of these couples have a deep and loving connection with their pet and treat them as if it were their own child. Quite often people are able to express themselves more to a pet than to other humans. In some ways every pet owner can be considered slightly crazy, people talk to their pets all the time, the only thing that makes Allen’s case so different is the fact that he had such a personal connection with his capuchin. Benjamin meant everything to him and spent most of his life caring for him as if he were his own son. Allen found something in Benjamin that he did not previously have in his life—the feeling of personal connection. Each and every person is connected to something in their life, Allen’s connection was