# Genius chimp shot by police **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223 "2009-02-17T03:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/41 "2009-02-18T14:34:53Z")
You can listen to the 911 call [here](http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/connecticut/090217_Chimp_Attack_911_Call_Released). I link to this because it’s a really shocking call. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/42 "2009-02-18T14:36:44Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It should be illegal to keep apes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears, pythons, etc. as pets. This not only deprives the animal of living in a natural environment, it endangers the entire household and any visitors. In fourteen states [it is](http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ddusexoticpets.htm), including this one: > [@](#): > > Fourteen states have complete bans on at least most of the pets considered exotic. In essence, a ban entirely prohibits private possession of captive wildlife, unlike other regulations which only limit or condition private ownership. > > California is one such state with a ban on exotic pets. Many other states require at least a special permit for many of those or a partial ban such as Michigan. > [@](#): > > Michigan explicitly bans wolf-dog hybrids, large cats, and bears, though it does not prohibit other exotic pets. It does, however, regulate certain aspects of their importation. ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/43 "2009-02-18T16:07:47Z")
If he’s so smart, how come he’s he dead? ETA: I like chicken fajitas. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/44 "2009-02-18T16:12:45Z")
There was a snippet of an interview with the owner on NPR this morning. She was distraught, and said something like “he was my life. I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I slept with him. And now he’s gone.” Lady…you what? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/45 "2009-02-18T16:14:35Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Could we get you something, Sir? Perhaps a nice bunch of bananas? > 🙂 No! Thats like fiber to my system and I have a really good aim and big cup like hands 🙂 Just. Walk. Away. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/46 "2009-02-18T16:43:47Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > There was a snippet of an interview with the owner on NPR this morning. She was distraught, and said something like “he was my life. I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I slept with him. And now he’s gone.” > > Lady…you what? Also says she called the ape her “son.” This woman was a total idiot and I’m very sorry for the hell her friend is going to go through. Pray for [del]Mojo[/del] Travis. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/47 "2009-02-18T17:14:57Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > There was a snippet of an interview with the owner on NPR this morning. She was distraught, and said something like “he was my life. I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I slept with him. And now he’s gone.” > > Lady…you what? Hot Monkey love? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/48 "2009-02-18T17:23:39Z")
Back when I was in college, one of my professors was a behavioral psychologist named Herb Terrace. He trained a baby chimp to use language. The simian was given the name “Nim Chimpsky,” in humorous tribute to linguist Noam Chomsky. Nim was raised very much as a human baby would have been. He learned to dress himself and feed himself much as a little boy would have. And he evetnually developed an extensive vocabulary. Ultimately, Terrace concluded (not everyone agreed with him, but I did) that Nim didn’t REALLY learn language- that he was just smart enough to figure out that certain combinations of symbols would get him a piece of fruit. But Nim had a dismal future ahead of him, after he reached adolescence. Adult chimps aren’t cute- they’re aggressive and dangerous. And having grown up with people, he had NO survival skills at all. He simply wouldn’t have known what to do if he were set free in an African rain forest. His miserable life was documented in a book: > **[Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human: Hess, Elizabeth: 9780553803839:...](https://www.amazon.com/Nim-Chimpsky-Chimp-Would-Human/dp/0553803832)** > > Buy Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/49 "2009-02-18T17:32:39Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It should be illegal to keep apes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears, pythons, etc. as pets. This not only deprives the animal of living in a natural environment, it endangers the entire household and any visitors. I don’t think pythons are as dangerous as those other animals, but still I agree; I don’t know why an adult would want a python as a “pet.” As a boy I had a kingsnake, but I can’t imagine having one now. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/50 "2009-02-18T17:35:25Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > You can listen to the 911 call [here](http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/connecticut/090217_Chimp_Attack_911_Call_Released). I link to this because it’s a really shocking call. Watching the ckip from Fox News I wanted to smack the news guy. The Primate expert said twice that basically chimpanzees can’t be domesticated, that they are wild animals and should not be kept as pets. Then he asks about the fact that in the wild Travis may have been injured or killed byu another wild animal. Dude…in a residential neighborhood Travis can harm other human beings. Didn’‘t you hear what the lady just said? This isbn’t some great mystery. Travis was an ape! He could rip your arm off and beat you with you with it. I’m betting he didn’t even like living in the house and considered it imprisonment of some kind. They let him drink freakin’ wine! I wouldn’t give alcohol to a superstrong human like animal…jeez. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/51 "2009-02-18T17:36:50Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I don’t think pythons are as dangerous… The problem’s when they’re too big to keep as a pet any longer. > **[Python Snakes, An Invasive Species In Florida, Could Spread To One Third Of US](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080223111456.htm)** > > Burmese pythons -- an invasive species in south Florida -- could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to new "climate maps" developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Although other factors such as type... ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/52 "2009-02-18T17:40:31Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > You can listen to the 911 call [here](http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/connecticut/090217_Chimp_Attack_911_Call_Released). I link to this because it’s a really shocking call. Although I do feel bad for the victim, I have to admit I got a little bit of schadenfreude from that, listening to the sheer horror in her voice as she witnessed the carnage wrought by her incredibly idiotic decision to get a chimp as a pet. Sadly she will probably never make the connection that her friend’s trauma was, in fact, the direct result of her own terrible decision. She’ll probably write it off as a fluke incident, a senseless tragedy that no one could have predicted. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/53 "2009-02-18T17:45:07Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It should be illegal to keep apes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears, pythons, etc. as pets. This not only deprives the animal of living in a natural environment, it endangers the entire household and any visitors. Agree with this. You would not believe the conditions that some of these “pets” are kept in. Stories like [this](http://www.bornfreeusa.org/sanctuary/c_carly.php) are not uncommon. > [@](#): > > Carly is a female snow monkey who arrived at the Sanctuary in early 2005. As a former “pet,” Carly led a particularly sad and lonely existence until Animal Control confiscated her from her “owner” in Nevada. She had been forced to spend years living in social isolation, away from others of her kind. Kept in a small cage in a garage, there was no fresh air, no sunshine, and no climbing structures. Her shelter was a barren metal cage with a grid floor covered with her waste, rotten food, and dirty blankets. It appeared that Carly had been severely neglected and was not given an adequate diet, being fed primarily junk food. She arrived at the Sanctuary slightly overweight, her muscles weak from lack of exercise, and showing signs of abnormal behavior such as repetitive rocking back and forth. Because there was no door to her cage, she had to be anesthetized while her cage was opened with bolt cutters." ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/54 "2009-02-18T17:47:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Adult chimps aren’t cute- they’re aggressive and dangerous. That was one clever thing about the Burton version of _Planet of the Apes_ – the aggressive ape general was a chimp – in all previous versions the ape armies were all-gorilla (probably from a conventional wisdom that soldiers/police be big dumb brutes), but this time you wanted the character to be nasty and ill-tempered and a chimp was appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/55 "2009-02-18T17:48:57Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > There was a snippet of an interview with the owner on NPR this morning. She was distraught, and said something like “he was my life. I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I slept with him. And now he’s gone.” > > Lady…you what? I think this sums up my unease with people who think of their animals as ‘little people’. _They’re not._ We’ve all know people who refer to their dogs as their ‘kids’ or their ‘furbabies’. They blind themselves to their charges’ animal traits by thinking of them as people. But people and dogs have been developing together for a long time, and we know to some degree how to train each other. Even then, there are often problems. In the case of Travis the chimp, a woman was misled by the more human-like shape of the chimp into anthropomorphizing it even more, and was totally oblivious to its animal signals. Until something went wrong. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/56 "2009-02-18T18:12:35Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > In the case of Travis the chimp, a woman was misled by the more human-like shape of the chimp into anthropomorphizing it even more, and was totally oblivious to its animal signals. Until something went wrong. I saw something about it on Good morning America? this morning. The chimp was one meds, apparently irritated about not going for a drive/ride, and then the female family friend showed up with a new really short haircut that Mr Bananna really didnt like. Unless he went apeshit the moment she walked in the door, the owner showed a real lack of judgement that day. And as scary as the 911 call was after the fact, I hate to say if I had been maning the phone I would have probably been laughing. Because I would have thought at first it was a well played prank. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/57 "2009-02-18T18:25:48Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > Hot Monkey love? On Valentine’s night, there were two things in the house going eee! eee! eee! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/58 "2009-02-18T18:29:42Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > On Valentine’s night, there were two things in the house going eee! eee! eee! Oook. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/59 "2009-02-18T18:34:03Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Oook. My God, you’re right! I never even thought about that! BONUS FILLER: I hate every ape I see From chimpan-A to chimpan-z … ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223/60 "2009-02-18T18:48:54Z")
Did anyone else notice in the news stories that the lady owning the chimp was _70?_ She was probably very lucky that it didn’t go after her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genius-chimp-shot-by-police/486223.md?page=4)