On Friday, during a performance in Detroit at the Festival of Laughs comedy tour, Mike Epps was joined onstage by a kangaroo on a leash, and many people are crying not only foul but animal abuse.
The kangaroo, which appeared to be in distress and at some point even tried to run off the stage, was wearing a harness. Epps egged the handler on as he wanted to get the animal involved in the performance and even at one point grabbed the leash to hold it for a picture. Several in attendance were furious about what they perceived as animal abuse.
Epps posted a video of himself with a different kangaroo after the show with the caption, “Yeh look how nice Iam 2 him! Theses guys are license zoo keepers ! #iloveanimals.” He has since deleted it.
Javon Stacks, the kangaroo’s handler, recently went viral last week when he was seen out and about in Detroit with a kangaroo on a leash, telling MLive.com that he had the proper licenses and that he had a traveling exotic zoo.
However, it is against Detroit law to own a kangaroo. According to TMZ, Animal Control has said that the state and federal authorities would have to determine if a crime was committed because the kangaroo is from out of town.
Epps later issued an apology on his Instagram account:
Look I wanna sincerely apologize to everybody ,I don’t own the kangaroo and did not mean any harm to the animal it got outta hand and Iam sorry !and like I said I will be donating money to this foundation save the kangaroos ! Sorry if I offedend anybody I love animals sense I was a kid I had dogs my whole life !!#imadeabadmistake I keep taking down my post because of the back lash Iam getting!! thank you for forgiveness !!