By now, you’ve certainly heard about the near-deadly chimp attack that took place in Connecticut last Monday. A lady lost her face, another lost her companion and a primate lost his life. Tragedy all around.
The story is incredibly unsettling, as are most tales that involve face-eating and chimp-stabbing (and clubbing and shooting). But the saddest part of the whole affair is that the ape’s owner is now completely alone.
The 200-pound chimp, named Travis, belonged to Sandra Herold — a childless widow who sipped wine with Travis at dinner and let him sleep in her bed. A former star of TV commercials, Travis bathed himself, brushed his own teeth, surfed the web, hogged the remote, and enjoyed lobster, steak and ice cream. Everything was just dandy until he went berserk on Herold’s friend Charla Nash, tearing off her jaw, nose and plucking out both eyes.
If you want to experience the terror, check out the recording of Herold’s frantic 911 call.
“The chimp killed my friend!” Herold said. “Send the police with a gun. With a gun!”
The dispatcher asks, “Who’s killing your friend?”
“My chimpanzee!” Herold cries. “He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!”
After the cops arrive, an officer radios back: “There’s a man down. He doesn’t look good,” he says, referring to Nash. “We’ve got to get this guy out of here. He’s got no face.”
Even more disturbing is the fact that Herold tried to stop Travis from tearing her friend apart by stabbing him with a kitchen knife and clubbing him with a shovel, to no avail. Keep in mind that the woman had previously lost her daughter, and the chimp is the only family she’s got.
An officer shot Travis several times after the chimp climbed into his cruiser and began attacking; Travis subsequently ran off, ultimately heading back to his bedroom where police found him, dead. I find all of this highly troubling. In fact, it makes me want to cry.
Nobody knows why Travis lost it, but Herold did say that she’d given him Xanax (she later retracted this claim), which could trigger a psychotic reaction. Travis also apparently had Lyme disease, which may have been a contributing factor. Then there’s the fact that chimpanzees are wild animals and should not be kept as pets.
I’d say the latter is a good rule of thumb.
This is why Chimps should stay in the jungle, not in some dude’s living room eating scoops of ice cream.
this chimp attack must have been nightmarish for that lady; i guess you never know what might put a chimp over the edge
“Nobody knows why Travis lost it”
Older chimps nearly completely lose their trained behavior by the age of eight & revert to a completely instinctual state. If an animal is feeling threatened, even for an irrational reason, they’ll attack.
Add this to the list of the “Grizzly Man” and that “Into the Wild” moron of why rational, vulnerable human beings should try to mix in with nature. Nature doesn’t believe in rationality, empathy, civil rights, non-violence or any of the other constructs that we create to make us feel that we’re superior beings–it’s kill or be killed.
Sorry, the first sentence of the second paragraph should read “should NOT”. Obviously.
[...] from the smattering of comments on yesterday’s entry about Travis the face-eating chimp, it’s clear that others find the story unsettling. (My [...]
“But the saddest part of the whole affair is that the ape’s owner is now completely alone.”
Oh yes. Charla Nash, lost her jaw, nose and both eyes. Sandra Harold lost a chimp. And Sandra’s loneliness is the saddest part of the whole affair. Do you even read what you write?
Yes, I read what I write. And I think that Sandra Harold’s injuries are horrible and the entire situation tragic. But despite Nash’s ignorance in keeping a wild animal as a domestic companion, I feel terrible for what she had to go through. This chimp was her companion, and she saw it a) nearly kill her friend, and b) get shot by police after she tried to kill it herself.
As a person who has bonded with animals, I find that to be the saddest part of the story. People are mutilated in industrial accidents every day.
Wow, I usually don’t bother leaving comments, but I think you, along with Sandra Harold needs serious mental help! Don’t get me wrong, I love animals too, but I think there are too many crazed animal lovers out there who place the lives of animals above human is just insane and incomprehensible. Nash lost her face and will never be able to see again and live a normal life, but we are suppose to feel sorry for the idiot owner who should have known better than keeping a wild animal as a pet? The sad part is that the gov’t knew about this animal’s danger and decided not to try to remove the animal because they did not want to get entangled in a long lawsuit and get bunch of bad publicity from other crazed animal lovers such as yourself, and here we are, a perfectly innocent human being paid the price. Nice work, you crazy lunatics!
Um, Chris, did you somehow miss my closing paragraph?:
“Nobody knows why Travis lost it, but Herold did say that she’d given him Xanax (she later retracted this claim), which could trigger a psychotic reaction. Travis also apparently had Lyme disease, which may have been a contributing factor. Then there’s the fact that chimpanzees are wild animals and should not be kept as pets.
I’d say the latter is a good rule of thumb.”
I THINK THE CHIMP SHOULD BE KILLED BECAUSE THAT CHIMP IS EVIL SO THAT’S MY SIDE AND I AM STICKING TO IT SORRY 4 THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER FACE I HOPE TRAVIS GETS KILLED AND THE WOMAN IS SUED ALL SHE HAS
i think that woman should get all of that 50,000,000,000 because that monkey needs to be shot in the head for that.And the woman needs to be shot in the head to i dont like her or the monkey with there stpuid self i hate them
sandra harld is so stupid misserable selfish woman also it is abviosly that she was the reason and that she had trained the chimp to do that .she let the chimp to do that in her friend.out of jelousy …god knows
Saw the Esquire piece just yesterday. Blood curdling. I got bit on the thumb by a monkey when I was 12. That was enough for me.