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Like Most Humans, Jacko's Bubbles Retired in Fla.

By Mat Probasco, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 13, 2009 5:56 AM CDT

(Newser) – He sat in the studio as the "Bad" album was recorded, dined with countless celebrities, and was once perhaps the world's most famous chimp. But like so many oldsters, today Michael Jackson's onetime pal Bubbles lives a quiet life in the retirement haven of Florida, reports the Miami Herald.

Bubbles, whose aggressive behavior toward Jackson's children precipitated his "retirement" in 2003, lives in a 120-acre Florida chimp sanctuary with 41 other primates. He's 26 years old, a little pudgy, and until recently was able to avoid the public eye. Jackson's death, however, brewed a maelstrom of unwanted attention. The sanctuary denies most visitation requests—and no, Bubbles does not moonwalk.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Bubbles, a chimpanzee formerly owned by Michael Jackson, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt in Tokyo in 1987, holds up a photo of himself and the singer. (Getty Images)

Jeff Koons' 1988 sculpture, "Michael Jackson and Bubbles," a portrait of the pop star and his pet, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2008. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)

The sculpture "Michael Jackson and Bubbles," by artist Jeff Koons, is shown on display in the Chateau de Versailles in Versailles, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, file)

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He's a very dignified chimp. Everyone knows him as the pink-eared, pink-faced chimp in the red suit. But the world has missed his adolescence and adulthood. He's not
the same. - Sanctuary founder Patti Ragan

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