But the chimps get too big, too aggressive and too strong. People buy chimps as babies, dress them up and teach them to eat with silverware. It’s a common story, primate experts said. Travis became a mascot for her towing company. Yet Sandra Herold has owned one for 14 years. “I don’t think any primatologist would recommend a chimpanzee as a pet,” de Waal said.

A police officer had to shoot and kill Travis. Herold grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed Travis, whom she had raised as a son, but it didn’t stop the chimp. Outside Herold’s North Stamford home, Travis mauled 55-year-old Charla Nash, almost killing the Stamford woman. They sometimes kill neighboring males.”Ī full-grown chimp’s aggression and brute strength make for a disastrous combination if brought into a home as a pet.įor Sandra Herold, the 70-year-old Stamford woman whose pet almost killed a friend Monday, her 14-year-old chimpanzee, Travis, was a “time bomb,” de Waal said, comparing him to a pet tiger. “They go for the face, hands and genitals. “It’s typical of the attack on a stranger,” said de Waal, a primate specialist and lead biologist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.

Apes’ strength, aggression are cited as dangersįrans de Waal, a renowned primatologist and author, often studies the positive side of chimpanzee behavior: charity, reconciliation, cooperation.īut when de Waal heard of the vicious chimpanzee attack in Stamford last week that left a 55-year-old woman disfigured and possibly in need of a face transplant, it reminded him of the dark side of primates, the type of behavior displayed by warring groups of wild chimpanzees.

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