ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP CLAIMS TO HAVE TAKEN MONKEY.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: Associated Press

WEST ISLIP -- A shadowy, loose-knit animal rights organization has claimed responsibility for the theft of a pet-store macaque whose conditions in captivity the group dubbed ``an abomination.''

The North American Animal Liberation Front claims to have spirited the monkey -- considered a vulnerable species by the World Wildlife Conservation Union -- out of B.T.J.'s Jungle Pet Shop in the early morning hours on Friday.

The stump-tailed primate, known as Annie, had lived in the store for 27 years in a cage 8 feet …