May 24, 2007 7:06 pm US/Eastern
Woman Goes Bananas After Pet Monkey Is Taken
by Richard Sher
ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
A Rockville woman is distraught after authorities seized her pet monkey.
As
Richard Sher reports, Elyse Gazewitz treated Armani like any other baby.
She fed him from a bottle, wheeled him around in a stroller and diapered him. She even built a $4,000 addition on her house for the four-pound capuchin monkey and outfitted it with tire swings, toys and a small hammock.
But Montgomery County animal control officials say Armani is an illegal resident under Maryland law. They seized him last week.
Gazewitz told
WJZ's Sher, "I can't eat, I can't sleep, I miss him so." Since he was taken away Gazewitz said she had not been able to sleep because "he always slept with me."
A new state law forbids anyone from importing, selling, breeding or having a "non-human primate," including monkeys. The law made an exception for animals that were owned before May 31 2006, but officials say Armani wasn't even born until December.
Gazewitz says officials are wrong, and she's fighting to get her monkey back. She says she can prove Armani was born and purchased in May of last year.
A hearing on this matter has been scheduled for June 6.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
