Tuesday, February 17, 2009

WAS HIS LAST NAME BICKLE?

A pet chimpanzee attacks a woman he's known for years, tearing off her face and then attacking a cop.

Travis, 14, was shot dead Monday in Stamford, Conn.

The New York Times tells it this way:
The woman, Charla Nash, 55, a friend of the chimpanzee’s owner, was being treated at Stamford Hospital and might not survive, the authorities said. ...

The attack, in the driveway of a sprawling home in a densely wooded neighborhood on the north side of Stamford, also brought a brutal end to the life of the chimpanzee, Travis, 14, a popular figure in town who had appeared in television commercials and often posed for photographs at the towing shop operated by his owners. He had escaped before, and in 2003 playfully held up traffic at a busy intersection for several hours, but had no history of violence, the authorities said. Travis’s social skills included drinking wine from a stemmed glass, dressing and bathing himself and using a computer.

Travis’s owner, Sandra Herold, 70, had raised him almost as one of her own children, but found herself lunging at him with a butcher knife on Monday to protect Ms. Nash ...
A police officer shot Travis after he opened the car door and attacked the cop.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

OMG! This is so sad for everybody! Poor people, poor monkey! What the heck??

Anonymous said...

Never monkey with a monkey. Sooner or later, it's their nature to go apeshit.

spank said...

Remember when Mr. Bojangles attacked Jenny? But she deserved it.

Desdinova said...

Why was it I read this and thought of that song from elementary school that says "And that was the end of the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk."

Ron Davis said...

Spank! Mr. Bojangles. Such a damned dirty ape. But yes, Jenny deserved it. She never wanted to clean his cage.