Story from Good Morning America - July 23, 2000

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Michelle Flikshtein, 13, sits with family pet Cookie, a Cercopithecus diana monkey. (Kathy Willens/AP Photo)

N E W Y O R K, July 23 � Afraid that authorities could come �any day now� for their rare Cercopithecus diana monkey, Cookie, a Brooklyn, N.Y., family is collecting e-mails and messages of support and lobbying public officials in order to hang on to their beloved pet.

The animals are endangered in West Africa, though Cookie was born in captivity in Florida. Five years ago, she was sold as an infant for $4,500 to the Flikshteins, who took her home to their Russian immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn and named her Cookie.

Roman Flikshtein says they did not know Cookie�s species was endangered until two years ago when authorities came looking for her.

Long court battles ensued, but the state has now won the right to take Cookie and put her in a species rescue program in the Detroit Zoo.

The family believes authorities could come any day to seize Cookie.

�We have no idea,� says Michelle Flikshtein, the family�s 13-year-old daughter. �We haven't really heard from anybody.�
State officials say they hope the Flikshteins will accept the court ruling so that it�s not necessary to take Cookie from them by force.

Since newspaper and national television reports brought the case to public attention last week, the family has been flooded with e-mails and calls supporting the family, says Michelle.

She says she and her parents are writing to public figures throughout New York state, including Gov. George Pataki and Senate candidate Hillary Clinton, asking for them to intervene.

�We just hope all this publicity will change their minds,� says Michelle.

Her husband watches television with Cookie when he comes home from work.

�She�s so precious, she�s so gentle. It�s just hard to explain.� says Roman Flikshtein.

"Sometimes I just like to hold her and cuddle when it�s cold,� says Michelle.

�Animals are animals and they need � they deserve � the chance to be what they are,� says Scott Carter, the curator for the Detroit Zoo. �A monkey raised by humans doesn�t know how to be a monkey.�

The zoo says Cookie would adapt. But the Flikshteins say Cookie won�t be able to defend herself because they�ve had her sharp incisor teeth taken out. And they�ve had her spayed, which means she can no longer breed.

Conservationists argue that if an exception were made for this charming creature, it would only encourage the illegal pet trade, which has helped bring so many species to the edge of extinction.

�Those people should be punished! We know this, we understand this, but we are the wrong family, and Cookie is the wrong pet,� Roman says.

Meanwhile, Cookie is adapting to the media attention.

�Well, at first she was a little nervous, but now she�s used to it, � says Michelle.

�Now she kind of shows off for the cameras.�

ABCNEWS� Bill Blakemore and ABCNEWS.com�s Oliver Libaw contributed to this report.