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Connecticut Animal Attack – Chimp Had Record of Aggressive Behavior

The chimp that was fatally shot after it attacked a friend of its owner in Connecticut earlier this week has a history of attacks, according to the Washington Post.

Travis, the 200-pound chimp that attacked and severely wounded Charla Nash, the friend of its owner, Sandra Herold, has had instances of out of control behavior in the past. According to a friend of Herold, Leslie Mostel Paul, Travis bit her hand and tried to pull her into a vehicle. She filed a complaint with the police and complained to Herold about Travis’ behavior. Other reports of Travis’ aggressive behavior are also coming out. According to an animal control officer in Connecticut, Lynn DellaBianca, she once had to warn Herold about Travis when the chimpanzee managed to make his way out of its owner’s car and played about in traffic for hours. DellaBianca says she told Herold that Travis could get out of control as he got older and more aggressive, and that Herold agreed. She seemed to have resigned herself to the fact that he would have to be sent away to a sanctuary as he became older. Before that could happen, Travis was shot by teams responding to Herold’s frantic 911 call as her beloved pet pounced on her friend, Charla Nash. Nash is now in Cleveland clinic, the scene of the world’s first facial transplant, a few weeks ago. She is said to be heavily sedated, and has suffered heavy injuries to her face and hands. According to Herold, there was no warning of the chimp’s intent to attack.

The severity of the attack left medical teams that responded to the scene of the animal attack, stunned. When they arrived, Nash was lying in the driveway of Herold’s home, unconscious and barely breathing. Her face was severely mangled, and it was hard to tell whether it was a male or female. Her scalp had been torn out, and what was left of her skin was covered in blood. The chimpanzee was shot when he tried to turn on the police officers.

Herold seems to have raised her pet more as a child than a pet. According to reports, she fed him lobster and steak, and she has affirmed that she took extremely good care of him. That speaks volumes of her love for her primate friend, but doesn’t do much to help her friend who is struggling for her life in the hospital. Nash faces several weeks of extensive treatment, including reconstructive surgery for her facial injuries. Police are now looking at whether Herold gave him the sedative Xanax before he went on his rampage. Officers have said that Herold told them she had given him a sedative to calm him down, but Herold now denies anything of the sort.

The attack has received high profile international coverage and brings home to us that some animals are not meant to be raised as docile pets. According to Connecticut laws, Herold was perfectly within her rights to keep Travis as a pet, and that has led to horrible consequences for her friend, as well as her beloved pet. A 200-pound animal is going to be too much for a 70-year-old woman to control, and authorities should have acted as soon as the first instance of Travis becoming aggressive, were noted. Herold herself should have seen this day coming. Instead, she chose to postpone the inevitable, and now her friend has paid the price.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of animal attacks. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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