Pet Chimp Mauls Woman, is Shot and Killed by Connecticut Police

In a bizarre story out of Stamford, Connecticut, Travis the Chimp apparently lost control and attacked a human that he had known for some time. The chimp was 15 years old and had been kept as a pet since he was only a few days old. Travis had starred in a few television commercials for Old Navy and Coca Cola and was by all accounts a really gentle animal. But something went wrong with Travis on this day and he was clearly agitated before his owner, Sandra Herold, called her friend Charla Nash to help her coax Travis back into her home.

When Nash arrived, Travis attacked her in her car and was mauling her when Herold went inside, called 911 and emerged with a large kitchen knife. She attacked Travis from behind in an attempt to get him off of her friend. Travis stopped his initial attack, but when police arrived, he was going at some of the officers, eventually gaining access to one of the patrol cars. Once he opened the door of the cruiser, the officer opened fire to protect himself and killed Travis.

Nash is currently in critical condition at a Stamford hospital, with injuries that the Stamford mayor referred to as "life changing, if not life threatening."

In an interview with Matt Lauer this morning, the Stamford sheriff explained that Travis had recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease and that he was being medicated for that condition. His owner also said that, because he was agitated in the morning, she put some xanax in his tea. Investigators are still trying to determine what went wrong with this chimp, who apparently could clothe and bathe himself - and also logged onto the computer from time to time. Lauer eventually asked wildlife expert Jeff Corwin how something like this could have been prevented. Corwin explained that people shouldn't have 200 pound chimps as pets, no matter how docile and friendly they may be. Chimps are several times stronger than similarly-sized humans and their instinctual social structures differ significantly from ours.