The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/218858p-188220c.html 

Monkeyed with law 

BY ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
Wednesday, August 4th, 2004 

The man whose macaque bit a 2-year-old boy in a Brooklyn supermarket could 
have his
monkey wrenched away for ignoring a judge's orders to keep the primate at 
home.
An advocate for the disabled who helped Steve Seidler win permission to keep 
his helping
monkey Darla said the animal had no business being in Key Food on Sunday 
afternoon.

"The agreement was for Mr. Seidler to keep the monkey on the leash and use 
this animal
within his home, not take him on the street or into a supermarket," said the 
advocate,
Laura Vann-LaRusso.

City health codes bar residents from owning a monkey.

But Vann-LaRusso helped convince the city Health Department that Darla was 
not a pet, but
a trained "service" monkey who helped Seidler with daily chores, like opening 
jars and
cabinets. 

An administrative law judge agreed, and in January 2003, granted Seidler an 
exemption to
keep the monkey, Vann-LaRusso said. "By taking the animal out the way he did, 
he violated
that stipulation," said Vann-LaRusso, of the Brooklyn Center for Independence 
of the
Disabled.

Seidler, who said Monday that he has emphysema and circulation problems that 
often force
him to use a wheelchair, would not comment yesterday. His lawyer, Dennis 
Trott, also
declined to comment.

Health Department spokesman Sid Dinsay said the agency was "exploring what 
our next steps
will be." The department had logged two complaints since 2002 of Seidler 
keeping an
illegal monkey, and one complaint - unfounded - that the monkey bit a child 
in May.

Animal advocates said the latest incident should prompt the city to remove 
Darla and send
the animal to a certified wildlife sanctuary.

"No matter how much training they receive, monkeys are wild animals, and 
macaques in
particular are very powerful animals with huge teeth. The animal easily could 
have killed
that child," said Lisa Wathne, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical 
Treatment of
Animals.

Little Thomas Romano was still traumatized by the Sunday attack in the Mill 
Basin store,
his mother, Tabatha, said yesterday. 

She wants 10-pound Darla, who chomped on the boy's arm, tested and put in a 
zoo or
sanctuary. "It is amazing to me that the animal wasn't confiscated and put in
quarantine," she said.

Police said Seidler, who claimed the boy provoked the attack, provided 
documents showing
he was allowed to keep the monkey, and that the animal was healthy.