AP: Conn. Officials Were Warned About Attack Chimp

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)

Connecticut officials were repeatedly warned about the dangers posed by a chimpanzee who later mauled and blinded a woman and were urged — more than three years before the attack — to take action, but failed to do so, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

The 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis attacked Charla Nash of Stamford in February, ripping off her hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She has been hospitalized for months at the Cleveland Clinic, where her condition late last week was listed as stable.

The state's response could affect a high-stakes lawsuit the victim's family filed against the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold of Stamford, seeking $50 million in damages. Attorneys are weighing whether to sue others as well, but declined to comment further.

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection officials said the agency received general concerns about Travis, but not specific information that the chimpanzee was a public safety threat.

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Travis, who was shot and killed by police, also had escaped in 2003 from his owner's car and led police on a chase for hours in downtown Stamford. No one was injured.

Records obtained by The AP through a state open-records request show that the state began receiving warnings immediately after that event.

Giselle Bollmann of Stamford sent an e-mail to the DEP on Oct. 21, 2003 citing the escape and calling for a thorough investigation after reading a local newspaper account.

In 2004, Linda Howard, who ran a primate rescue operation before she died in 2006, wrote the department, offering recommendations for placing Travis in a sanctuary.

State officials were still talking about Travis' 2003 escape two years later and members of at least three state agencies expressed concern.

"Due to this incident, persons from the general public contacted the department with safety concerns," the DEP wrote in a report dated Sept. 16, 2005.

The draft report by a staff member cited concerns by DEP and two other state agencies about Travis and three other primates. The other cases involved small monkeys and a gibbon ape.