She also called her friend, the 55-year-old Nash, who knew Travis well, to come over to help calm him down. Travis the chimpanzees relationship with his owner was closer than those of some married couples. Trying to calm him down, Herold gave the chimp some tea laced with the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. 29.9K subscribers Subscribe 26K views 4 years ago Travis was a male common chimpanzee who attacked and nearly killed a woman in North Stamford, Connecticut. 19, 2009, 8:53 AM PST / Source: The Associated Press. He had stolen the keys to her car and gone into the yard. Travis was acting “rambunctious” on Monday. “When one animal becomes violent, we shouldn’t hold it against all animals any more than if it was a human being,” Allred said. Who’s to say one is better than another?” “There are animals all across America that are living in circumstances that are different from sanctuaries. They all have personalities, built-in traits,” LaDonna Davis told Morales. His wife lost a thumb.Īnd yet, like Herold, the Davises maintained that chimpanzees should be allowed to live with humans. James Davis wears a prosthetic nose and his face is scarred from the attack and the scores of surgeries he has undergone. Moe was not involved in the attack.Īfter Rossen’s report, the Davises and their attorney, Gloria Allred, spoke from California with TODAY’s Natalie Morales. A ranger at the refuge shot and killed both chimps. James Davis was savagely mauled, losing an eye and several fingers as well as sustaining other injuries. While they were feeding Moe birthday cake through a hole in his fenced enclosure, two adolescent chimpanzees somehow escaped from their own enclosure at the refuge and attacked the Davises. James and LaDonna Davis of West Covina, Calif., were visiting Moe, a 39-year-old chimp they had raised as a human, at a wildlife refuge the chimpanzee had been sent to by a court after he showed aggressive behavior in 1999. Such attacks are rare, but they have happened before.

How many people go crazy and kill other people? This is one incident that I don't know what happened.” “We can give them a blood transfusion, and they can give us one. They're the closest thing to humans - to us,” Herold said. “After what you've been through with this - your friend is in the hospital fighting for her life - do you still think chimps should be pets?” Rossen asked her.

Travis chimpanzee face