UPDATED: 11:26 am EDT August 3, 2004
NEW YORK -- A monkey
trained to help a disabled man with chores bit a 2-year-old boy in a
supermarket, authorities said.
The boy, Thomas Romano, was shopping with
his grandparents at the Key Food store in Brooklyn on Monday when the monkey
bit him on the arm. He was treated at a hospital and released.
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The monkey's owner, Steven Seidler, 45,
said the animal attacked after Romano pulled its fur. Seidler is confined to a
wheelchair and uses the monkey to help him open doors and pick things up.
But Romano's grandmother, Helene Romano,
said the bite was unprovoked.
"I'm walking into the Key Food, and
the next thing I know, my grandson is like, 'Grandma, Grandma it hurts!' And
I'm looking around and I see blood coming out of his arm," she said.
It is illegal to keep monkeys as pets in
New York City, but permits are given for those trained to help the disabled.
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