The Daily Mail has an excellent story about a lawsuit that was filed last week by the victim of July's monkey attack at the Kaaterskill Bed and Breakfast in Catskill. The case is amazing. It involves an American-dream-living and beauty-parlor-owning Iranian immigrant (the victim) and a presidential-portrait-painting artist (the defendant):
Beauty salon owner and Iranian immigrant Parvin Hajihossini filed a complaint in Queens County Supreme Court last week claiming high-profile Manhattan portraitist Allen Hirsch, owner of the monkey and The Kaaterskill bed and breakfast on High Falls Road Extension, was negligent and failed to properly cage or contain the animal when it attacked her.
For the monkey himself, who is named Benjamin, the stakes are high. It seems that Greene County has ordered him to be destroyed. But Greene County also seems reluctant to actually carry out the order:
Greene County Attorney Carol Stevens said Tuesday that while the order was issued Hirsch was never served with it, indicating he did not have official knowledge of such a request by county health officials. If Hirsch purposefully ignored the order, he would be subject to a misdemeanor offense for violating state public health law. “It would be somewhat difficult to bring charges against him,” Stevens said. “We were unable to serve him.”
In the meantime, both Hirsch and his monkey seem to have gone into hiding:
Hirsch, a native of Los Angeles and an artist who, at the age of 33, painted a portrait of President Bill Clinton for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., has not yet responded to the lawsuit nor has he or Benjamin been located.
UPDATE 9/10/10: There's more, much more, about this story in the national news. How did I miss last Saturday's Times Union story about the case, in which it is revealed that man and monkey have have fled to South America. (Check out the photo of the victim's wound):
Ancowitz said Allen Hirsch has fled to South America -- he believes to Venezuela -- escaping a July 23 Greene County county health order to have the animal turned over to the county veterinarian, put to death and tested for rabies.
And so the search is on for Benjamin, who has bitten at least one other person, said Lori Severino, a spokeswoman for DEC.
"The monkey and owner disappeared shortly after this incident," she said. "Locating the owner and monkey is part of the investigation."
Or this 2009 New York Times story in which Allen Hirsch and Benjamin are described in detail:
Allen Hirsch, a successful New York City painter, also bonded with his monkey early in its life. Benjamin, a 12-year-old capuchin monkey who came to Mr. Hirsch as a sickly mistreated infant, is like “a primordial human,” he says. “You recognize something very human in his gaze, a certain understanding, a certain awareness.”
From the start, Mr. Hirsch said, it has been a time-consuming, demanding relationship. After Benjamin bit off two of his own diseased toes, Mr. Hirsch stayed with him for four months, rarely leaving his side. Since having a monkey as a pet is illegal in New York City, he now keeps Benjamin in his country house in Catskill, N.Y., where a friend must often look after him. (New York State also banned monkeys as pets four years ago, but Benjamin is grandfathered in.)
But if owning Benjamin has kept him from traveling as much as he once did, that’s O.K. Mr. Hirsch has bathed with Benjamin, slept with him, and allowed him to play with his daughter, who is just about the same age; he sees the monkey as very much a family member.
“I never call him a pet,” Mr. Hirsch adds. “He’s a fellow creature I take care of.”
