Mar 05 2009
Pet Chimpanzee’s Savage Attack Bites off Woman’s Face, Scalp, Hands, Eyes and Nose – Chimpanzee Chilling 911 Call - Stamford Connecticut
Pet Chimpanzee Attacks and Bites off Woman’s Face Scalp Hands Eyes and Nose –
Stamford Connecticut
- Harvey the chimpanzee -
photo: Associated Press
- Owner Fed Chimp Human Anti-Anxiety Drug on Day of Attack Which Can Cause Aggressive Side Effects -
The horrific story of a woman who had her face bitten off by a chimpanzee last month did not come as a surprise to me.
I have worked with chimps in a small zoo and I was warned by the owner of the primal instinctual nature of the chimpanzee and how best to act around them to avoid attack.
I cannot believe that someone would keep a chimpanzee as a pet. I know Michael Jackson had one; say no more.
But quite honestly I think it is an act of total irresponsibility on behalf of the chimps owner, Sandra Herold. I know she must have suffered enough, and will probably never get over the trauma of this day.
She lost her beloved life-long pet chimpanzee and destroyed her friend’s life forever.
So let this chilling story be a stark warning to potential pet owners considering taking a wild animal into the home.
It really is asking for trouble to confine a wild animal within domesticity. They are not meant to live in homes, but in the wild.
Humans and animals live by different rules. To be foolish enough to introduce a wild animal into the confines of a domestic environment beggars belief. -
Last month, Charla Nash, 55, from Stamford, Connecticut, was attacked by a 15 year old, 200 pound pet chimpanzee, called Travis.
She was critically injured when the chimp turned on her without warning, biting off her face, scalp, hands, lips, nose, cheeks and eyelids.
The chimp’s owner made a desperate phone call to 911 when Travis the chimp, suddenly turned on her friend. She screamed: “He’s ripped her face off… My chimpanzee. He ripped her apart.”
- The Very Distressing Phone Call Video to 911 - Sky News -
The friend was just getting out of her car when the chimp attacked; seemingly for no apparent reason. Though the owner did feed the chimp the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea as Travis was agitated earlier that day.
Police said the drug had not been prescribed for the 15-year-old chimp.
“In humans, Xanax can cause memory loss, lack of coordination, reduced sex drive and other side effects. It can also lead to aggression in people who were unstable to begin with, said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center”. It would appear that this may have been the cause of the chimp’s sudden aggression.
The chimp’s owner rushed to house and returned with a large butcher’s knife which she proceeded to stab into her much loved pet, in an effort to stop the ferocious assault on her friend, by her chimp. She was also pounding him with a large shovel, but to no avail.
The 55 year old victim had lost a lot of blood by the time the police and emergency services arrived and the chimp had left the victim and was busy wandering around the streets.
When he spotted the police cars, he headed back, opened the door of one of them and tried to get in, at which stage he was shot dead.
The Cleveland Clinic has now revealed the 55 year-old victim could suffer with brain damage and could quite possibly go blind and still remains in a critical condition.
The clinic is unsure just how her recovery will go and only time will tell. They are not sure at this stage in time if she would even be a suitable candidate for a face transplant. “Her potential for recovery, if any, remains unclear at this time,” the hospital said.
Harvey the pet chimpanzee was raised by Sandra Herold from a baby; he was toilet-trained, could drink and bathe himself and liked to drink wine from a stemmed glass’. -
The reality is that a chimpanzee living among people is simply a ticking time bomb. No matter how many years it has lived peacefully as a pet, a chimpanzee is not a domesticated animal and can snap without warning. “They are wild animals, and all wild animals are potentially dangerous,” says Colleen McCann, a primatologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and New York’s Bronx Zoo. “They are not pets. This is tragic, but it’s not surprising.”
Despite the potential threat chimpanzees pose, many U.S. states, including Connecticut, legally allow people to raise them as pets. Primatologists like McCann argue that chimpanzees should never be kept privately, and the WCS supports the Captive Primate Safety Act, a bill pending in Congress that would ban the private selling of primates as pets. The bill has stalled since it was introduced in 2005, but the Stamford assault may well renew its debate. “This is a tragedy for the families involved, for the animal and for the community — but it’s not a unique story,” says McCann. “When humans keep wild animals as pets, they pose a danger, and more times than not it will end in tragedy.”
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880229,00.html
“Chimpanzees are more than wild animals. They are wild animals with above average intelligence that live in hierarchical groups where the most brutal and cunning rise to Alpha male status. They have a genetic predisposition for violence. They organize “war parties” in the wild and hunt down other chimps that they kill with great zeal.
Dr. Jane Goodall has brought us groundbreaking information on these great apes for the last 45 years. Chimps are not human. It’s hard to even classify them as animals that operate solely on instinct. They operate on a very deliberate and cognitive level. They think. They don’t think like humans. They think like chimps, and chimps think in very primitive (by human standards) and brutal ways. Violence is in many ways the solution”.
http://rwridley.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/the-chimp-attack-compassion-before-judgment
- Pet Chimpanzee’s Savage Attack Bites off Woman’s Face, Hands, Eyes and Nose – Stamford Connecticut
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- A Bit Off My Beaten Path, But Something That Strongly Needs To Be Addressed AGAIN! If You Want An Exotic Pet Go LIVE In A Zoo….
- Bee! Through the eyes of an autistic toddler.
What a horrible thing to have happened. People should not be allowed to keep chimpanzee’s as pets. It’s just not right. For starters it’s unfair on the chimpanzee, and second of all; things like this can happen, which is also unfair on the chimpanzee as it ends up dead as a result.
People can just be so stupid sometimes, and as a result of this woman’s idiocy in keeping a chimpanzee as a pet, someone has been savagely attacked and could be left brain damaged and blind.
Another brilliant article from you here; I can really see that you’re passionate about the subject that you’ve chosen to write about here, and as a result your article is just absolutely excellent. You’ve really covered this one well. You’re such a talented writer, I’m so proud of you.
I am in aggreance with all of you’s, Chimp’s is not an inhouse pet. people should be ashame of them selves for having such pets. I am very sorry about the mishap with that woman. Maybe the others who have made up thier minds about such pets will get a broader look on what to chose for pets.