The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

August 10, 2004
Owner throws a monkey wrench
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/220704p-189709c.html


BY AUSTIN FENNER and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


The Brooklyn owner of an attack macaque won't tell city officials 
where his illegal pet monkey is hiding out, an animal rescue activist 
said yesterday.

Robin Schulder of the citywide nonprofit Animal Rescue Unit said 
monkey owner Steven Seidler told her yesterday he won't comply with 
today's city-imposed deadline to get rid of Darla, who bit a 
2-year-old boy last week.

"He's going to fight this all the way," Schulder said.

"But if it turns out he can't keep the monkey, he's agreed to give it 
to me and I'll take it up to a sanctuary upstate," said Schulder, who 
added that she considers Darla gentle enough to be around her 
3-year-old son.

But don't tell that to another bite victim who came forward yesterday.

"It was terrifying. My heart was coming out through my chest," said 
Miriam Benado, who said she was bitten in the calf July 14 by Darla.

Benado is the fourth person who claims to have been bitten by Darla 
in the past two years.

Benado said she was at Seidler's Mill Basin home tomake sure the 
self-professed disabled man was getting his taxpayer-funded 
housecleaning services three times a week.

"The monkey was dressed in Pampers eating a lollipop. I was sitting 
there writing my report when the monkey crept up and grabbed my leg. 
I panicked, backed up and the monkey bit me in the leg, then attacked 
my other leg," said Benado, who works for BHRAGS Housekeeping in 
Brooklyn.

The service no longer sends cleaners to Seidler's home.

Seidler has said he needs Darla to do simple household chores.

Seidler, a former cop and ex-con, told a health inspector over the 
weekend that he had already sent the monkey out of state. But he 
refused to let the agent into his home, saying as an Orthodox Jew he 
was observing the Sabbath, health officials said.

Seidler tooled around the neighborhood in his motorized wheelchair 
yesterday to walk his pet pit bull, but he refused to answer 
questions and hid his face from photographers beneath a gray hooded 
sweatshirt.