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Charla Nash, Sandra Herold and Travis the Chimp
Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 6:33AM 
Charla Nash,55, is in critical but stable condition after seven hours of surgery by four teams of surgeons. Charla was the victim of a savage, brutal and unprovoked attack by Travis the chimpanzee, owned by her longtime friend Sandra Herold. According to Dr. Kevin Miller:
Nash's vital signs are improving but that she received extensive injuries to her face and hands. Miller said she is making good, but small, progress after being treated by hand specialists and plastic surgeons, as well as specialists in ophthalmology, orthopedics and trauma.
Charla was attacked by the 14-year-old, 200 pound Travis the chimpanzee, who for no apparent reason, went berserk and jumped Charla as soon as she got out of her car. Her friend, the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold was having trouble controlling Travis and had called Charla to come over and help her.
Upon seeing Travis attack Charla, Sandra frantically called 911, got a knife and rushed to help her friend while still on the phone. She stabbed the chimp several times with the knife and even used a shovel to strike him. Here is the 911 called made by Sandra Herold: Travis can also be heard in the background attacking Charla as the operator stays on the line and Sandra hysterically tries to explain what is going on. She screams: "The chimp killed my friend", "He ripped her face off", "She's dead, she's dead", "please hurry", "I think I'm going to faint". Read all about it here.
Travis was eventually shot multiple times as he attempted to attack one of the police officer. When it was all over Travis' body was removed from the home and taken to two separate locations: The head was taken to the state lab for a rabies test and the body was taken to the University of Connecticut for an animal autopsy. Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said this is standard procedure.
Sandra Herold gave an interview in which she said she thought of the 200-pound chimp as her son. Her house was full of toys that Travis used to play with. She had pictures of him everywhere and even said that he would sleep with her. In the interview she describes the events leading up to Travis being killed by the police and talks about how she felt having to stab him.
Carla Nash, Charla Nash, Sandra Herold, Travis, Travis the Chimp, Travis the Chimpanzee in Our World, Weird, news, odd
Reader Comments (9)
Our deepest condolences to Sandra and her family for the loss of Travis. I'm sure it was the medication for the Lyme disease that caused his erratic behavior. Travis was fortunate to have such a loving home, he wasn't kept in a cage all his life. May his memory live in everyone's hearts that loved him.
I feel that Travis possibly only snaped that day due to the medications.And that it's awsome that he wasn't kept in a cage his whole life.That it was a freak accident.People kill people everyday.How many times do u hear of a chimp killing.My condolences go out to all that were hurt in this tragedy..I do not feel that chimps are bad at all..
How deranged do you need to be to keep a wild animal as a pet and give it drugs - listen to her scream for police officers to shoot the chimp - she had no idea of their power - for further reading try anything by Jane Goodall - chimps are more human than you think - they kill, they main and try to destroy their enemies
See what happens when A Chimp is put on Prozac, and they wonder what happens to people!
Stay os Drugs, any drugs if you can, there is a deadly combination in too many! Stay Clean be clean!
Stupidity abounds. "Travis" the chimpanzee living as this strange woman's surrogate son/lover, her doping him up as he roams freely about, and the wisdom of her friend to come over and try to sweetly placate a raging 200 lb. beast. What next.
This women is living in a fog. She had a 200 lb. animal, that showed signs of dangerous behavior way before this brutal attack. She was told by the owner of a refuge for chimps that she could not control the animal, and it needed to be placed in the refuge. BUT STILL, she ignored everyone, and kept her Travis at home because she said, "You just don't know my Travis".
If your dog bit or, god forbid mauled someone, the authorities would have taken the dog away. Why wasent he?!!! Why did a women get to keep a chimp that big, running around like a pet poodle.
I feel there is more than the owners at fault here. He had already bit two people.
My heart goes out to Charla Nash, and her family. There really isn't anyway this women can get
a fraction of her life, as she knew it back. " You just don't know" what can happen with a pet that reaches 200 LB.
get the fuck outta here.
This lady is crazy and she should be in jail. Yeah people do kill people, but there is no excuse for a freakin chimp to go crazy and rip a ladies face off. I'm glad that little fucker got iced and they should cap the crazy owner too.
Sandra Herold (the owner of the chimp) should be jailed. It was illegal for her to have owned and kept a chimp (especially such an obese slob of one) in her home. The only reason that she is NOT in jail is because she has $$$ and the town feels sorry for her because everyone knows she's crazy. She was probably having sex with the chimp. Everyone knows that she is not playing with a 'full deck'. It's too bad that her friend wanted to help her. Sandra didn't deserve the help and Charla didn't deserve to be blinded and maimed. I get weekly updates on Charla's health via e-mail from her brothers. It's a mailing list for those who care about her. What happened to her is unthinkable and Sandra Herold should pay MILLIONS to her AND should go to prison for life, the old witch!
Sandra Herold was a hideous old crazy woman who had wild crazy monkey sex with a poor, drugged up chimp. Ever last nickle this crazy old broad has should be given to the victim, and Herold needs to be tossed in the slammer for the rest of her miserable life. There is no punishment that would remotely atone for her stupidity and negligence, but tossing her into the most savage, brutal prison available is all I can think of. Well, unless we can smear peanut butter all over her fat face and toss her lard ass onto Chimp Island at Lion Country Safari.