Friday, February 20, 2009

Who needs pitbulls?

It's all fun and games, until somebody gets hurt.

I don't know what to think about the chimp attack on Charla Nash. Certainly, it's horrific and I only hope she pulls through as best one can considering the injuries.

Of course, all the attention has shifted to the chimp . . . and its owner. We've learned that the owner sat down to dinner with Travis sharing the finest food, sipped wine together, took baths together, snuggled and slept together.

That's weird.

But, is it? I've read about some pretty strange cat and dog owners. My sister did a story on some bird owners that could match levels on the kook meter.

It IS different, though. A chimp isn't a domesticated animal. Sure, they can be trained, and seem to have a degree of intelligence. They also live in family-type units in the wild so it's easy to understand how a chimp could acclimate to the situation.

To a point.

We're not talking about a hedgehog here. Not even a spider monkey. This is a 200 pound, incredibly strong . . . wild animal. It's one thing to acclimate a chimp to be around humans such that they can be trained for movies and such, but quite another to think they can be domesticated like a dog. How often have these sorts of stories turned out badly? There's likely not a zoologist in the world that would recommend a wild animal as a pet. The risks are simply too great.

As Charla Nash horrifically found out.

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