AR-News: Police remove monkeys from N.Y. apartment

[jim robertson]

Police remove monkeys from N.Y. apartment
Animal control officials also confiscate tarantula, two dogs, two cats and 
fish


>From wire reports

Associated Press
A monkey clings to Orlando Lopez in his New York apartment before animal 
control officials confiscated several animals.



NEW YORK -- A troop of monkeys was carted out of an apartment Tuesday 
afternoon as their owner, a veterinary technician, stood by and wept over 
the loss of his "children."

An anonymous report of animal abuse led police and officials from Animal 
Care and Control to the Hillside Avenue apartment of Orlando Lopez, 26, who 
crammed six monkeys, a tarantula, two dogs, two cats and fish into a 
two-room apartment.

"It's like a wild kingdom in there," a police officer said as Animal Control 
officials removed the 2-pound monkeys that lived in custom-made cages in the 
main room of Lopez's apartment.

Lopez, issued a summons to appear before the Environmental Control Board, 
had been sleeping on a bed in his kitchen while the animals lived in the 
main room.

"They were my kids," a teary Lopez said. "Could you imagine if someone came 
into your apartment and took everything you loved and cared for? Some 
vengeful, hateful person did this to me."

Lopez was allowed to ke
ep his Great Dane, a Chihuahua, a cat and a tank of fish. He was issued a 
summons to appear before the environmental commission.

Lopez said he got the monkeys -- Michael, Mandy, Lucille, Chuckie, Belle and 
Marly -- from a Florida breeder and brought them to New York. The former 
Pennsylvania resident said he has been living in his apartment for four 
years.

"If I have to move out of the five boroughs to get them back, I'll do that," 
Lopez said.

The creatures, in healthy condition, were taken to the private home of a 
licensed wildlife rehabilitator, said Rosemary Joyce of Animal Care and 
Control.

Lopez said he was licensed six years ago as a wildlife specialist by the 
state Department of Environmental Conservation. He works at an animal 
hospital in Manhattan.

Mike Pastore, director of field operations for Animal Care and Control, said 
the monkeys were in good condition, but they didn't belong in an apartment.

"They need to be swinging from trees," Pastore said Wednesday.

Most neighbors in Lopez's expansive brick building said they had no idea he 
was hosting the animals -- two squirrel monkeys, two marmosets and two 
capuchin -- and were cracking jokes over the spectacle as they gathered 
outside Lopez's apartment yearning for a glimpse of the empty cages.

Last October, animal control officers arrested a man for keeping a tiger and 
an alligator in his New York City apartment. Later that month, officers 
arrested another apartment resident for keeping 12 exotic snakes.

But officials said unlike those animals, the monkeys were not a threat. The 
monkeys will stay at an animal sanctuary until a permanent home is found, 
NYC Animal Care and Control officials said.




Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full 
breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit 
itself to humankind.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize winner

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