A 70-year-old Connecticut woman says she was forced to stab her pet chimp, Travis, when the ape went bananas and began attacking her friend.
“I stabbed him. I had to,” Sandra Herold says of the chimp that once starred in ads for Old Navy and Coke who she raised in her home as if he were her own child. “He couldn’t be more my son than if I gave birth to him,” she said.
Still, when Travis attacked her 55-year-old pal Charla Nash — who was trying to cajole the 200-pound animal back into his cage — Sandra said, "It was very difficult to do this, but I had to save my friend. I am so sorry for what happened to Charlie. She is my dear friend."
Sandra says she thinks Travis attacked Charla because he didn’t recognize her. She had just come from the salon and had her hair dyed and cut. She was also driving a different car than usual. According to reports, the chimp also suffered from Lyme’s disease and had been given Xanax.
Charla, whose face was mauled in the attack, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
