A therapist told Officer Frank Chiafari to "politely decline" when asked to tell the awful story of the day Travis the chimp mauled Charla Nash in CT, ripping off her hands and face, but recently he made an exception. According to the officer—who's been denied Workers Comp for a PTSD claim after shooting the animal—it all started with a "humorous-sounding" call across the radio early last year. “[It] came over as ‘monkey attacking someone,’" he told the Times. But as he drove to scene he thought “Wait a minute, that’s Travis.” He'd met the "friendly" chimpanzee before: Travis's owners had a towing company and would sometimes bring him along when police called them to move vehicles. Chiafari pulled up he saw what looked like a pile of clothes. “Then I realized it’s a human being,” he said. “It was all ripped apart.” That's when Travis began bashing the window of his cruiser. more ›

The family of a woman who was severely mauled by a chimpanzee plans to sue Connecticut for $150 million. A lawyer for Charla Nash, who remains at the Cleveland Clinic after 200-pound chimp Travis chewed off her hands, nose, lips and eyelids, says, "We believe the evidence will show that the state, acting through the Department of Environmental Protection, failed to adequately address a serious public safety issue that resulted in tragic consequences for our client." (A DEP biologist had warned about Travis before the attack.) Connecticut's attorney general is reviewing the suit and told the Courant it was a "horrific tragedy" but the lawsuit "seems unprecedented in size." Nash's family is also suing Travis's owner for $50 million, but her lawyer is trying to limit her damages by calling it a worker's comp claim. more ›

Earlier this year, a Connecticut woman was severely mauled by her friend's 200-pound pet chimp Travis. Charla Nash "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack," and her family sued chimp owner Sondra Herold for $50 million in damages. Now, Herold is seeking to call the suit a worker's compensation claim—because Nash worked for her and Travis the chimp was a part of the business. more ›

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. continues to back down from a NY Post editorial cartoon in February that featured a dead chimpanzee. The company announced Wednesday that it will form a "diversity community council" to meet with senior New York executives as part of a response to public outcry from civil rights organizations over the chimp cartoon. News Corp. executives met with those organizations last month to hammer out a deal, which spokesman Jack Horner said is similar to policies in place at News Corp. offices elsewhere. "The key is we're always responding and learning from our communities," he told the AP. Serving on the diversity council are expected to be representatives from the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Hispanic Federation, and other New York-area organizations. more ›

Since Connecticut has banned the ownership of exotic animals—including gorillas, chimps, orangutans, lions, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, ocelots, bobcats and other big, wild cats, wolves, coyotes and bears—as pets, the state is offering a one-day amnesty program that will allow people to bring in their exotic and illegal pets to a zoo without repercussions. The Connecticut Post reports, "All animals collected become property of the DEP... homes will be found for the animals, though probably not at the zoo. Most of the pets will likely go to wildlife sanctuaries or other agencies equipped to handle them." The director of the Beardsley Zoo, where owners can turn in their pets on July 25, Gregg Dancho said he's seen monkeys hanging out in kitchen and people walking mountain lions, "A lot of times, this is impulse buying." Oh, this reminds us of Ming, the tiger found in a Harlem apartment nearly six years ago. more ›

Connecticut's General Assembly voted yesterday to ban chimpanzees, as well as other primates, as pets. This comes nearly three months after a Stamford woman was severely mauled by her friend's pet chimp—Charla Nash "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack." The Hartford Courant reports, the "bill would add only gorillas, chimps and orangutans to the list of wild animals already prohibited under existing state law: lions, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, ocelots, bobcats and other big, wild cats — as well as wolves, coyotes and bears." An earlier version of the bill, which included animals like "baboons, kangaroos, wolverines, hyenas, elephants, hippos, alligators, crocodiles, rattlesnakes, cobras and pythons," was stalled because apparently ferrets are related to wolverines, causing concern among ferret owners. Last month, Nash's family said on the Today show that she will need at least two more years of hospital care. more ›

The Connecticut woman severely injured by her friend's pet chimpanzee remains in critical condition. Charla Nash, 50, was transported to the Cleveland Clinic, which had performed a successful face transplant last December. However, it's unclear whether Nash is a good candidate for a transplant—a doctor at a different hospital told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Some of the traditional reconstructive techniques might not work well for this patient." more ›

About 200 people gathered outside the NY Post's offices in midtown Manhattan to protest the Sean Delonas-drawn editorial cartoon showing a dead chimp, shot by police who say, "They'll have to find someone else to write next stimulus bill." The protesters shouted, "Shut down the Post! Shut down the Post!" more ›

The Connecticut woman who was viciously mauled by her friend's 200-pound chimp underwent surgery yesterday. The family of Charla Nash thanked people for their support, noting that she made "some good, but small progress." Her twin brother Mike Nash said, "It should be known that people who were complete strangers to us prior to this have selflessly offered their assistance to our family, and we are eternally grateful." more ›

Today, NY Post editorial cartoonist Sean Delonas's offering that ties in the Connecticut chimp incident with the federal stimulus package is raising many eyebrows. The Huffington Post's Sam Stein wrote, "At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial. Perhaps that's what Delonas wanted." more ›

With a friend clinging to life after her pet chimpanzee mauled her, Sandra Herold tearfully told My Fox NY, "It's just been hell. There's no other way to explain it." Herold, a Stamford CT resident, tried to stop Travis the 200-poung chimp from attacking her friend Charla Nash by hitting him with a shovel and even stabbing him, but it wasn't until the police arrived and fatally shot the animal that Travis stopped. Herold was in shock, "He didn't have anything but love until this freak accident." She told the Post, "It was very difficult to do this, but I had to save my friend. I am so sorry for what happened to Charlie. She is my dear friend." more ›