VIDEO: Infamous Chimpanzee Attack – The 911 Call

In this video, you can listen to a frantic 911 call from Sandy Herold, whose pet chimpanzee Travis attacked her friend, Charla Nash.

He mauled her face, ripping out her eyes and almost every finger off her hands.

Sandy tried to stop him – she even stabbed him, but the chimp was too strong and wouldn’t let go of Charla.

He was ultimately shot by the police.

According to Wikipedia, on February 16, 2009, Travis attacked Sandra Herold’s 55-year-old friend Charla Nash, inflicting devastating injuries to her face and limbs. Travis had left the house with Sandra Herold’s car keys, and Nash came to help get the chimp back in the house; upon seeing Nash holding one of his favorite toys, Travis immediately attacked her.

Travis was familiar with Nash, who had also worked at the Herolds’ towing company, although Nash had a different hair style at the time of the attack. The chimp had been taking medication for Lyme disease. Herold, then 70 years old, attempted to stop Travis by hitting him with a shovel and stabbing him with a butcher knife. The ape was angered more. Herold then called 911.

Travis’ screams can be heard in the background of the tape as Sandra pleads for police, who initially believed the call to be a hoax, until she started screaming, “He’s eating her!” Travis walked up to the police car when it arrived, tried to open a locked passenger door, and smashed a side-view mirror.

Then he went calmly around to the driver’s-side door and opened it, at which point Officer Frank Chiafari shot him several times. Travis retreated to the house, where he was found dead next to his cage.

Within the following 72 hours, Nash underwent more than seven hours of surgery on her face and hands by four teams of surgeons. The hospital provided counseling to its staff members who initially treated her because of the extraordinary nature of Nash’s wounds.

Paramedics noted she lost her hands, nose, eyes, lips, and mid-face bone structure, and received significant brain tissue injuries. Doctors successfully reattached her jaw, but announced on April 7, 2009 that Nash would be blind for life.

In June 2011, Nash underwent transplant surgery performed by a team led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahač at the Harvard teaching affiliate, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, receiving a donated face and hands.

The hands transplant was successful, but because Nash developed pneumonia shortly thereafter, doctors were forced to remove her newly transplanted hands due to the infection and resulting poor circulation.

In accordance with standard procedure, Travis’ head was taken to the state laboratory for a rabies test, and the body was taken to the University of Connecticut for a necropsy. The head tested negative for rabies, but there was Xanax (Alprazolam) remaining in his system. Necropsy results in May 2009 confirmed the chimp was overweight and had been stabbed.

Toxicology reports confirmed Sandra’s statement that she had given Travis Xanax-laced tea the day of the attack, which could have exacerbated his aggression. Xanax is a short acting potent anti-anxiety drug that can cause disinhibition and disorientation and occasionally paradoxical reactions of hallucination, aggression, rage and mania.