Talking gorilla asked me to strip off

Cheeky monkey wanted to see some stripping action
Oliver Stallwood|Metro13 April 2012

As a world-famous 'talking' gorilla with a vocabulary topping 1,000 words, she ought to learn to bite her tongue.

But the hairy, 140kg (300lb) linguist has a strange nipple fetish and demands to see her carers' breasts, it is claimed.

Two of Koko's former handlers are suing their ex-bosses for £530,000 after allegedly being fired for refusing to bare their tops for the 33-year-old ape.

The women say they were asked to perform 'bizarre sexual acts with Koko' by Francine Patterson, who has spent more than 30 years teaching the lowland gorilla to use sign language.

Once, according to the lawsuit filed by Nancy Alperin, 47, and 48-year-old Kendra Keller, Patterson said: 'Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples.'

The keepers never undressed but were threatened that if they 'did not indulge Koko's nipple fetish' their employment with the Gorilla Foundation, in Woodside, near San Francisco, would suffer, the lawsuit alleged.

Patterson, the foundation's president, pressured the women 'to perform such acts, regularly and consistently, and on at least one occasion, outdoors where others could see', the lawsuit added.

Koko became the subject of books and TV shows worldwide after Patterson taught her American Sign Language.

The ape's former handlers also claim they were fired for telling authorities about alleged health violations, including the storage of gorilla urine in the same fridge as human food.

But the Gorilla Foundation, set up in 1976, denies the claims.

The carers are trying to 'manipulate a purported employment issue and miscast it purely for publicity purposes', said Patterson's lawyer, Todd Roberts.

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