Chimp Attack: Update on the Victim ... and a related story

Sadly, the Associated Press is reporting today that the victim of last month's horrific chimp attack, Charla Nash, has lost her nose, lips, hands, and eyelids, and may be blind and suffering from brain damage. At this time, she remains sedated at the Cleveland Clinic, the nation's first hospital to have performed a face transplant back in December. (Hospital surgeons have not yet determined if Nash would be a viable candidate for such a transplant.)

The responding medics to the scene recount a horrific find. In fact, before their arrival on the scene, police who has arrived before them, warned dispatch of the gruesomeness of the scene. "Her hands looked like they were wrecked by a machine. Eyes wounded, hair yanked out. Face and scalp injuries so extensive, all the blood obscured whatever parts were left." [source]

A few days following the highly publicized attack, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an interesting story about a local man who, back to 2001, came face to face with three chimps that had escaped from a private farm near his home in Festus, MO. He shot and killed one of them, a 28-year-old chimp named Suzy. The shooting of Suzy lead to public outrage, a trial, and a felony conviction or property damage and misdemeanor animal cruelty.

Jason Coates, the Festus "convicted felon," had to turn off the TV as the station broadcasted the 911 tapes of the chimp attack. "It was the chimp's screams; I couldn't listen to the screams," he said.

The Post-Dispatch story continues:

"It's sad that it takes people being practically killed for people to realize how dangerous these animals are," Coats said. "They are vicious, smart and strong and should never be allowed in residential areas, period."

Last week's attack coupled with its ties to the fatal Festus chimp incident also has reaffirmed at least one former chimp owner's decision to give up the pets she purchased from the Festus farm. She began a crusade to warn others who think the primates are harmless.

Coats said people who recognized him still called him the "monkey killer." In the trial, Connie Casey said Coats shot Suzy three times after she had been tranquilized. He said he shot her because she was attacking his dog and turned on him.

The jury convicted him. He spent 30 days in jail, and missed the birth of his first son, his first Father's Day, his wife's high school graduation and their first anniversary. Circuit Judge Gary Kramer ordered Coats to write letters of apology to everyone who wrote to the court. Coats estimates he wrote about 300.

"I have a hard time taking my kids to the ape house at the zoo," he said. "I have phobia of chimps. I don't see how a person couldn't, after what happened."

He fears his sons, Kenny, 6, and Jason, 5, will face the same jeers when they get older. His wife, Angel, said Coats had cried over the stress his conviction had brought on him.

He can't vote. He can't own a firearm. He can't take his sons hunting. And his carpentry business doesn't land certain jobs when criminal background checks reveal his past.

He said the attack in Connecticut was just one of several that should make people realize how dangerous the chimps were. He points to Mike Casey's attack and another that left former chimp owner St. James Davis mutilated and disabled.
...
He said he still had a hard time taking his boys to visit family members who live in the house where he shot Suzy. The chimps sometimes swing inside their outdoor enclosure just two doors away.

And he can hear their screams.

[The above cited article details Coates' neighbors -- "Chimparty." The owners rented out chimps for parties and pictures.]

In the present case of Charla Nash, police are still considering whether its owner, Sandra Herold of Stamford, will face criminal charges.

In the meantime, I wonder if consideration might be made to re-open Coates' case and possibly move to remove his felony conviction. Perhaps Coates did, indeed, fear for his life. After reading the horrible results of such wild animal attacks, I would be fearful, too!