If you love a simian, set it free – RIP Travis. tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you love a simian, set it free – RIP Travis.

Posted by Claire Connelly in Entertainment

Before I go about my weekly angry ritual, I would like to acknowledge that if more people were as outraged about the death of Travis the chimp (whilst simultaneously missing the entire point of their outrage) as they ought to be about the thousands of civil wars that are going on around the world, the hunger, the starvation, the disease and corruption – perhaps, just maybe governments would be a little more accountable for their actions.

But I digress.

So far, in the five news articles I’ve read (The SMH, The Australian, News.com.au, China Daily and Fox News) and two radio shows (2dayfm, 2UE), all of them failed to point out that the tragic death of Travis the chimp was a direct result of animal abuse and or neglect (no matter how well meaning it was).

Travis the chimp, would not have lashed out at its owner Sandra Herold had she not casually slipped him a Xanex fourty-five minutes prior to the attack (as well as the countless other potential times she had tried to medicate him which she may have conveniently forgotten to tell the authorities about).

Xanex is a human anti-depressant which of its many many side affects – aggression and insomnia are two significant and commonly occurring features.

Here’s the gist of how the reports all went:

“Do you think that chimps are cuddly and friendly animals? Well don’t try to pet them because it could rip your face off! In an alarming monkey attack in Connecticut USA, Travis the chimp brutally attacked its owner Sandra Herold and her friend Nash. In an act of heroic self defense, its owner stabbed Travis and was later shot by police. Nash is now in a critical condition at Stamford Hospital.” (Repeat ad infinitum).

I expect sensational news reporting, it’s the nature of most news outlets these days in a desperate attempt to keep people interested to stay on their site long enough to click on a bit of advertising, since they’ve realised that the newspaper industry has at least one foot in the grave already; but I didn’t realise that journalists are unable to verify actual facts in their reporting these days.

The New York Post has cruelly nicknamed the deceased Travis “Furious George.”

Assholes.

Either the standard of tertiary education for journalism is slipping, or media outlets are letting journalistic standards drop, letting their reporters run amok – all in the name of getting a good story, even if it is at the expense of the truth, and compassion for the people involved.

If Herold casually gave her pet chimp Travis Xanex, who knows what other medications she may have given him?

This rage may not have even been a side affect of Xanex so much as its bad reaction to the other cocktails of meds she potentially could have been feeding him.

I hope the SPCA, WSPA, PETA, and/or other animal rights groups go after this woman with the full force of the law behind them.

It’s animal neglect and abuse.

Also keeping chimps as pets?

WTF?

Update:

After showing the NBC cameras the mug of tea which she used to give Travis the crushed up Xanex, Herold has since denied feeding Travis the drug at all.

Somebody has lawyered up.

First rule of idiocy – after stabbing your pet chimp, admitting to actual video cameras that you feed your pet antidepressants probably isn’t the smartest idea.

Keeping a chimp as a domestic pet is probably a legally gray area as it is, but feeding it anti-depressants and also “casually enjoying a glass of wine” with your pet every night before bed also probably isn’t legal or ethical either.

Poor little chimpy.

Rest in peace Travis.