Blumenthal calls for exotic animal ban in wake of Stamford chimpanzee attack

[madinmaryland]

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/norwalkadvocate/ci_11731188

HARTFORD -- "Lax" state laws and regulations on the possession of exotic animals need to be tightened to make sure the chimp-mauling tragedy in Stamford never happens again, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday.

"Vague" and "defective" laws that prohibit people from keeping bears and other wild animals should now include chimpanzees in private homes, Blumenthal said at an afternoon news conference.

He asked for cooperation from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the General Assembly to rewrite state laws and regulations that now allow the DEP commissioner the power to issue permits to keep exotic pets.

He said that contrary to initial reports, "Travis" the 200-pound Stamford chimp, was never "grandfathered" in under state law and the owner, Sandra Herold, should have been required to obtain a DEP permit.

"The problem is that the existing law contains a prohibition on certain potentially dangerous animals, but only a limited group, such as tigers, wolves and bears," Blumenthal said. "Incredibly, any restriction on possession of almost all other potentially dangerous animals is left to the complete discretion of the commissioner of environmental protection without any meaningful legislative guidance and insignificant penalties."

Blumenthal called for a ban of exotic and potentially dangerous animals, from snakes to crocodiles and chimps.

..snip

[CTyankee]

1. I couldn't believe it when I heard this happened in CT!

I was amazed that our state didn't have laws against private ownership of wild animals like chimps. It is SO totally inappropriate and just plain cruel to the animal.

Too bad it took this kind of extreme incident to get the law looked at...good for Dick B.

[theoldman]

2. It is very hard to pass laws to eliminate stupidity.

Anyone with half a brain should know that wild animals are wild until they die.

[CTyankee]

6. I saw the lady who owned the chimp this morning on TV. She is clearly unbalanced.

There was a photo of her kissing the chimp on the mouth. She dressed him, fed him and said she even slept in the same bed with him. I was uncomfortable; it's amazing to me that they actually aired all this...

[RamboLiberal]

3. Coincidentally Esquire April Edition has story of another horrorific attack

Warning - page 3 of the story has graphic picture of victim. And story below is graphic as well.

St. James Davis is crying. It's a loud, whooping wail of a cry. He's sitting in the driveway of his childhood home, a sprawling, L-shaped ranch house in West Covina, California, on a sun-drenched day last September. Standing next to him is his wife of nearly forty years, LaDonna. On the brink of tears herself, LaDonna grabs a cloth and gently cradles his cheek with her right hand. With her left, she carefully dabs at his mouth. St. James keeps his head still as she tends to him. He doesn't say a word as he calms down. He doesn't have to — LaDonna knows what he wants now that the sun is beating down on him. She grabs the beige bucket hat hanging around his neck and eases it onto his head.

LaDonna tends to St. James because he can't tend to himself. St. James, sixty-six, a former high school football star and onetime Nascar driver, is severely disabled and disfigured. There's a two-inch hole in the heel of his swollen left foot, and he is confined to a wheelchair. He has no nose, only a red, raw, exposed septum, surrounded by narrow openings. At the top are three tiny magnets designed to hold in place a crude silicone prosthesis, which is constantly falling off. His right eye is gone, replaced with glass. The skin on his face droops like candle wax because so many bones around his cheeks and eyes were broken. His mouth, which has been completely reconstructed, is stuck in a frown. On his left hand, his index, middle, and ring fingers are stumps. His right hand is much worse. He has a misshapen hunk of flesh for a thumb, which appears as if it were lumped onto his wrist with clay. His index and middle fingers are gone; his ring finger and pinkie are immobile.

But St. James's crying has nothing to do with his physical condition. He's crying because of news he and LaDonna recently received about what really can only be called their boy. At first, St. James and LaDonna were reluctant to speak about all that's happened to them. LaDonna prefers not to talk to outsiders about their life because, she says, they are so often misunderstood.

-----

As St. James confronted the chimp, the six-two former running back turned to find a second chimp — also a male, this one older and bigger — bearing down on him as well. With both hands, he pushed the bigger animal. Both chimps pounced. One of the animals grabbed him in a bear hug before chomping into the bone above his right eyebrow. He then stuck his finger in St. James's right eye, gouging it out. The same animal clamped his teeth onto St. James's nose, biting it off, as the other chimp chewed away at St. James's fingers. In the melee, one of the chimps dug in his claws and ripped the skin off the right side of St. James's face, causing it to flop over and cover his left eye, temporarily blinding him. One of the primates sunk his teeth into St. James's skull. He then closed his jaws on St. James's mouth, ripping off his lips and most of his teeth. St. James tried to put one of his hands down the animal's throat, but the chimp just kept chewing on it and chewing on it, and he couldn't get it out.

http://www.esquire.com/features/chimpanzee-attack-0409

[kestrel91316]

4. Well, given the case a couple of years ago here in CA and now this CT

case, I'd definitely be calling chimpanzees over a certain age DANGEROUS animals. It's the ripping/eating faces off that does it for me......

[madinmaryland]

5. Absolutely. Anyone who doesn't think they are needs to be checked out.