There was a man in Covina, California: a very populated suburb about 20 minutes east of downtown LA who raised a male chimp since it was almost an infant. It grew into adulthood and around the time it hit "middle" age (for a chimp) LA county, not the state stepped in and said "no suh" and ordered the owner to surrender the chimp to a shelter that handled these animals.
There was never one incident ever with this animal. Now don't get me wrong. I know what chimps are capable of and I feel the same way about chimps as the rest of you gentlemen. But the story gets more interesting.
The Chimp had been at the shelter a couple of years and the owner was granted full visiting priviliges. He continued to lobby for the animals return but to no avail. And still, no problems.
The chimp was normally segregated from the others due to age and social reasons (sort of the same way they do "correctional" facilities I guess
) but on one occasion a few years back, when the owner came to visit, the chimp was in a holding area with two of the newer and younger males (a severe deviation in protocol).
The owner did not wait for them to be separated and chose to go in anyway. The two other chimps presumably became jealous and attacked the owner who according to one witness was bitten repeatedly,
thrown around like a rag doll (and this was no small man), had half of his face ripped off along with his "precious pair"(
OUCH!!!!), which I'm told is something they do to rivals, and was pummelled for almost five minutes untill the facility employee who was equiped with a 45 caliber revolver (thats all the report said), and
who had already put two rounds into one chimp and three into the other, was able to run back to the office to find some heavier loads for his pistol, and then return to finish them off before they decided to exit the gate that the owner had left open in an attempt to escape this attack.
Apparently, rather than escape, the two chose to establish dominance over the owners chimp by staying and thrashing his master. This just shows the vicious social nature these animals can display (kind of like inmates in a correctional facility
).
An animal rights group pushed to sue the county on the mans behalf but the last I heard, he wasn't pursuing any legal action stating that he was well aware of the potential risks and held no malace at all towards the two attacking chimps. Although severely disfigured (among other things
), confined to a wheelchair and in constant pain from the multiple broken bones he had, he still visits his own chimp (who still is without incident) to this day.
A five shot 45 caliber revolver...? One could assume the employee was packing a Freedom Arms Cassull loaded with 45 LC's and when those didn't work, he went to the 454's or maybe just some very hot Long Colt's. Either way, That's one tough primate! I just can't see why anyone would take the risk.
