Saw a professional on tv this morning who said it is not unusual for this to happen.  It is natural for Wild chimps ( especially males) to want to dominate others to show their power. 

They are not like domestic pets..even though some dogs do the same thing!

I’m just glad the 911 folks didn’t decide it was a hoax and turn around after she yelled, "My chimpanzee!"  It’s almost unbelievable.

I remember seeing a PBS documentary a few years ago about the difficulty of maintaining humane shelters for adult chimpanzees.  They have to be kept behind bars, or at best in netted enclosures.  It’s like Lily’s elephants.  These creatures should never be taken from the wild just for our entertainment and/or experimentation.  Especially since it’s far more entertaining (and enlightening) to see them in their natural environment.

Prayers for Charla Nash.

Each night, Sandra Herold and her beloved chimp, Travis, would share a glass of wine before snuggling in bed together".

Nothing is wrong with that chimp, some human beings are just sick! 

The 70-yr old owner of the 14-yr old chimp, Travis, had him from when he was 3-days old. In the intervening years he starred in commercials and was seen around town often and was regarded with affection. There were other minor instances that involved the police. If the police wanted to counsel the woman on ownership of the chimp—they had ample opportunity.

After the death of the woman’s husband, and then her daughter in a car accident, it is understandable how she would become so devoted to the chimp who was very intelligent and could used the computer, eat at the table, and also took off with the car a couple of times. It was a very smart animal, and as the owner had said she regarded him like ‘her son.’ How many times do we hear of people referring to their less human-like pets as their ‘fur children.’ etc.

The chimp was taking medication for Lyme’s disease, which in humans can cause psychotic behavior, and the owner said she gave him Xanax 5-minutes before. Since she made this statement publically there will undoubtedly be an atopsy to see what was in his bloodstream, and that will indicate if there was a non-prescribed medication contributing to this attack. The chimp knew and liked the victim and the owner said because her hair and car were different, and because she wagged a stuffed Elmo in front of her face as a gift for Travis—those things made him feel threatened for his owner that in his agitated state he thought he was protecting.

Many people keep wild animals as pets, and members of the family as this lady did without consequence for 14 years.

It is a terrible tragedy all the way around—-and the couple of remarks here that place this tragedy in terms of being ‘sick’ etc…just show, once again, how inhuman republicans always are. Never failing when opportunities present themselves to reveal their very shallow reasoning abilities andso called ‘humanity’.

I feel very sorry for the victim, the owner, and for Travis and also the community. What an overwhelming tragedy for all.