Knoxville, TN (WOKI) A Middle Tennessee man is facing charges after police say he threatened to blow up the University of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital on River Drive.

According to charging documents, officers were called to the hospital after receiving the threat around 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 7.

Authorities say 37-year-old Joseph McDorman called the hospital, asking for his pet spider monkey to be seen, and subsequently threatened to blow the facility up when he was told he would have to wait until the clinic opened at 7:30 a.m.

Specifically, McDorman told the hospital operator “if my monkey dies, I am coming up there to blow the whole [expletive] building up.”

Charging documents indicate the clinic refused to serve McDorman after he made the threat and that police were able to run a background check on the phone number which led them to McDorman.

He was charged with harassment and making a threat of mass violence.