Animal Experts Are Baffled by Chimp Attack

After police arrive, one officer radios back: "There's a man down. He doesn't look good," he says, referring to Nash. "We've got to get this guy out of here. He's got no face."

The owner of Travis, a 10-year-old chimpanzee, is at the center of a $50 million lawsuit by a woman...

The owner of Travis, a 10-year-old chimpanzee, is at the center of a $50 million lawsuit by a woman who was mauled by the 200-pound animal. Travis' owner, however, says the woman's crippling injuries should be subject to workman's compensation instead of a civil court judgment.

(The Stamford Advocate, via AP)
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Herold told New York-based WNYW-TV in an interview that aired Tuesday night that she has agonized over Nash's injuries and that Travis' death is "something that I can't hardly live with because he went in his room and died, and I wasn't with him. I couldn't get back in the house."

Police said that Travis was agitated earlier Monday and that Herold had given him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Police said the drug had not been prescribed for the 14-year-old chimp.

In humans, Xanax can cause memory loss, lack of coordination, reduced sex drive and other side effects. It can also lead to aggression in people who were unstable to begin with, said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

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"Xanax could have made him worse," if human studies are any indication, Coccaro said.

Stephen Rene Tello, executive director of Primarily Primates, a sanctuary for chimps in Texas, said it is difficult to say what effect Xanax would have on a chimp, but he noted that chimps and humans have similar physiology.

Investigators said they were also told that Travis had Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness with flu-like symptoms that can lead to arthritis and meningitis in humans.

"Maybe from the medications he was out of sorts," Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said.

Herold could not be reached for comment. A woman answering the door at Herold's home, where drops of blood stained the walkway, would not speak to reporters Tuesday. Conklin said Herold was "traumatized by this very, very brutal attack."

Don Mecca, a family friend from Colchester, N.Y., said Herold, whose daughter died several years ago in a car accident, fed the chimp steak, lobster, ice cream and Italian food.

Herold built the chimpanzee a large cage in her home. She knew chimps could be dangerous but found it hard to part with Travis, Mecca said.