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  • From: Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>
  • To: monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [monkeywire] Brooklyn man hides monkey
  • Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 09:25:59 -0400

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.





  • [monkeywire] Brooklyn man hides monkey, Carrie McLaren, 08/10/2004

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