Tapes of frantic 911 call released: 'Hurry, please. He ripped her face off' STAMFORD, Conn. - The owner of a 200-pound domesticated chimpanzee that went berserk and severely mauled a woman disputed a police report that she gave the animal Xanax, even though hours earlier Wednesday she acknowledged giving the anti-anxiety drug to her pet.
Sandra Herold told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she "never, ever" gave the drug to her 15-year-old chimp, Travis.
On Monday, the animal attacked Herold's friend, 55-year-old Charla Nash. Police shot the chimpanzee, which died a short time later.
Stamford police said Herold told them that she gave Travis Xanax on Monday to calm him because he was agitated. And in an interview aired Wednesday on NBC’s “TODAY” show she said she gave the chimp some Xanax-laced tea “five minutes” before the attack, showing a reporter the mug.
In humans, Xanax can cause memory loss, lack of coordination, reduced sex drive and other side effects. It can also lead to aggression in people who were unstable to begin with, said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
"Xanax could have made him worse," if human studies are any indication, Coccaro said.
911 tapes released
On Tuesday, police released 911 tapes of Herold's desperate call to police.
The chimp can be heard grunting at times on the tape, as Herold cries, "He's killing my friend!"
"Hurry, please! He ripped her face off," she is heard begging.
The dispatcher says, "Who's killing your friend?"
Herold replies, "My chimpanzee! He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!"
After police arrive, one officer radios back: "There's a man down. He doesn't look good," he says, referring to the disfigured Nash. "We've got to get this guy out of here. He's got no face."
Nash remained was in critical condition Wednesday.
Connecticut law requires primates weighing more than 50 pounds to be registered with the state. But state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Dennis Schain said Herold’s chimp was exempted because it did not appear to present a public health risk and was owned before the registration requirement began.
Gina McCarthy, the department’s commissioner, is pushing for a new state law banning people from owning large primates, and called on the public, police and animal control officers to report any such animals currently being kept as pets.
'I’ll miss him for the rest of my life'
As the chimp attacked Nash, Herold frantically stabbed her beloved pet with a butcher knife and pounded him with a shovel.
"He looked at me like, 'Mom, what did you do?'" Herold, 70, told TODAY in an interview aired Wednesday. "It was horrific what happened and I had to do what I had to do, but still, I'll miss him for the rest of my life."
She said Travis "couldn’t have been more my son than if I gave birth to him," and rejected criticism that chimpanzees are inappropriate pets.
"It’s a horrible thing, but I’m not a horrible person and he’s not a horrible chimp." she said.
Police said they are looking into the possibility of criminal charges. A pet owner can be held criminally responsible if he or she knew or should have known that an animal was a danger to others.
Nash had gone to Herold's home in Stamford on Monday to help her coax the chimp back into the house after he got out, police said. After the animal lunged at Nash when she got out of her car, Herold ran inside to call 911 and returned with a knife.
After the initial attack, Travis ran away and started roaming Herold's property until police arrived, setting up security so medics could reach the critically injured woman, Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said.
But the chimpanzee returned and went after several of the officers, who retreated into their cars, Conklin said. An officer shot Travis several times after the animal opened the door to his cruiser and started to get in.
The wounded chimpanzee fled into the house and retreated to his living quarters, where he died.
When he was younger, Travis starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, made an appearance on the "Maury Povich Show" and took part in a television pilot, according to a 2003 story in The Advocate newspaper of Stamford.
reason you should ONLY own a domesicated animal !!!!!!!!
