A 15 year old, 200 pound trained monkey was killed in Conecticut for seriously injuring a woman. But was it handled correctly?

Gosh… Interesting Question…..

I suppose it was justified… If it attacked my I would want it… removed…

Would you link the article, please?

@aprilsimnel http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/17/america/chimp.php

i think, as you said @Mr_M, that humans > animals, plus this chimp had gotten out before and gone nuts. if a dog attacked people several times (sometimes even once), it may have to be put down. A chimp could be worse. Another article I read about this said another chimp got out once and gnawed a man’s nose and genitals off. ZOMG. it was necessary.

Also, as Daniel Tosh once noted, a chimp has the strength of 10 retarded men. That’s why Hollywood, on it’s high horse, won’t make a movie about a retarded chimp. it’s gosh darn near a superhero.

@april, I’m going by what was all over TV here in NY yesterday and today. It was also on the “Today” show.

@eponymoushipster I’m not hearing that. I heard it got out of a car once and stopped traffic in what they described as a “playful” way.

This behavior parallels the behavior of the chimp in ‘Jenny’ (fictional, but based on real research). The gist of it is that few, if any, chimps being raised as pets make it past puberty because they begin to get agressive.

@Mr_M let me find the article. they used the term “rampage” for the 2003 article…hold on.

but in the above link, look in his eyes. he wants to munch your nads.

Ok. here’s the first article I read about this, via CNN. it’s not “rampage” but rather ”wreaked havoc” in 2003. pardon.

rampage would be more fun though.

and he still wants to gnaw your nads

@eponymoushipster havoc is fun

@Grisson true.

for example

I’m glad to know you’re alright Mr_M. When I saw it on the news I was worried it was YOU!

After reading the article, it seems that the police officer did what he felt he had to do: he was being attacked and most likely wasn’t trained to deal with disturbed animals. It’s sad, but I’d’ve shot him too, under the circumstances. If it’s between me and him to remain among the living, I’m all about me.

@Judi, he was a good friend. I’ll be leaving for Stamford in a few to pay respects.

@april, but apparently, the monkey tried to get into the passenger’s side and could not. That’s when he broke the mirror. The other officer had plenty of time to “prepare”. I feel his intention was to kill the monkey. That’s why they’re saying he was “attacked”. Remember, this animal had been stabbed and injured.

@Mr_M – I was putting myself in the cop’s place. What would you have had the cop do, given that he was not a trained animal control officer? What would he prepare?

It’s so human to attempt to control nature, then act surprised when faced with the consequences. We blame the animal instead of the industry and culture that says it’s okay to try to domesticate a wild beast.

@aprilsimnel , for starters maybe, lock the car door? I’m not convinced that’s the true story. I wonder if the cop opened the door and shot.

I visited the Chimp Farm in Tarpon Springs Florida when I lived nearby during the 80’s. I learned then that people love having cute little chimps for pets, but once they get to be a certain size or age, they aren’t so fun any more, because of their brute strength and ability to ruin an entire household within minutes. Then they discard their “beloved pet” in one way or the other, and it usually turns out a sad story for all concerned.

The story in this thread reminds me of what I learned at the Chimp Farm. People should do their homework when choosing a pet and make sure they are prepared for what could happen, and not think just about “how cute it is” when it’s little. This whole story is very sad, and not the chimp’s fault. The owners should know they were raising a wild animal and provided the proper housing for it, so this didn’t happen.

It’s really sad to see animals killed because some moron didn’t do their homework before choosing a pet. I’m not saying it’s true in this case because I don’t know all the details, but I am saying this in general. I guess what I’m trying to say as a bottom line is if you aren’t a zoologist, don’t get a wild animal for a pet.

What the article only briefly mentions is that this chimp was used in commercials. On the news you’ll see them. They were well known television commercials. The husband of the owner is deceased. One has to wonder if they raised and trained animals for television.

@Mr_M If they were raising and training the animals for TV, then they should be aware enough of chimp behavior to know that they get agressive at a certain age. If not, they should not be in the business.

I agree. There’s plenty of blame to go around. I think EVERYTHING was done wrong. One has to wonder what would happen if a child went into that household.

@Grisson so true, and they should have known it needed to be contained properly.

@Mr_M Although it would be a bad idea to expose a child to that kind of danger, it’s possible that the answer is: Nothing would have happened to the child.

My understanding (limited though it may be) is that the animals are being territorial sexually, attacking adults of the same sex as rivals and aggressivley persuing adults of the opposite sex as potential mates.

Again, it’s a hypothesis I wouldn’t want to test.

Do chimps age the same way humans do? Was this animal being an emotional teenager?

This is just another of thousands and thousands of examples of why people should not be allowed to keep exotics as pets. Yes, there is some very small minority of owners who actually research the physical, emotional, and social needs of the animals and actually have the finances and wherewithal to provide those things. But in the large majority of cases, it is the animal who suffers. They suffer from a (shortened) lifetime of inadequate housing, inappropriate diet, lack of proper medical care, and lack of socialization. And when something goes wrong, it’s the animal that is destroyed.

One of the articles that I read about this story described the animal as a “domesticated” chimp. Raising an animal as a pet does not domesticate it. Domestication is the process of selectively breeding for preferred traits over generations and generations. Raising it as a pet merely habituates it – he still has all of the natural instincts and behaviors of a wild animal.

I have participated in “rescuing” exotics from pet situations. A lioness with pathological fractures in most of her bones because she was fed nothing but chicken breasts for most of her life. A leopard who slowly and progressively ate his own tail joint by joint because he was insane from living in a 3×8 foot cage in a basement for 7 years. A jaguar who crawled on his elbows because of the chronic, severe pain from a botched declawing surgery. We probably took in nearly a hundred animals over the course of 5 years, just in big cats, just from our immediate area. And we only saw a small fraction of the population of exotic pets in our area.

I can promise that you would be shocked by the number of exotic animals as pets in this country.