Sanctuary To Make Bid To Keep Baboon

Penny Torres Rubin leads meditation sessions, channels an ancient being named Mafu, and runs a sanctuary for tigers and other exotic animals.

Now she wants to auction off a baboon on the Jackson County Courthouse steps so she can gain legal custody of the animal that was left at her Oregon Tiger Sanctuary.

“I’ll bid as high as I have to go,” Torres Rubin said. “I want him to have a good home.”

Her sanctuary has already spent more than $9,000 feeding the hamadryas baboon, whose name is Boon, since its owners left the animal at her sanctuary on Aug. 1, 1996.

Torres Rubin has asked the owners, whom she didn’t name, to sell her the baboon or pay for its care and feeding and gotten nowhere. So her lawyer suggested she put the baboon up for public auction as a means to gain legal custody.

The auction is set for 3 p.m. April 16.

So how much is a 70-pound baboon with an attitude and a life expectancy of 35 years worth?

“A baboon like that you can’t give away,” said Kevin Keith, a trainer in charge of primates at Marine World in Vallejo, Calif., who helps out at Torres Rubin’s sanctuary. “They are hard to take care of.”