STAMFORD, Conn. -- Sandra Herold called 911 Monday when the chimpanzee she cared for and lived with brutally attacked Charla Nash, a friend she'd called to assist her in calming the primate when it appeared to become agitated.

The chilling 911 call made by Herold while the chimp, named Travis, attacked Nash was released by the Stamford Police Department Tuesday night. Travis can be heard screaming in the background of the call.



The chilling 911 call made by Herold while the chimp, named Travis, attacked Nash was released by the Stamford Police Department Tuesday night. Travis can be heard screaming in the background of the call.

"He's killing my friend," Herold said in the call. "My chimpanzee! He ripped her apart. Shoot him, shoot him! He's killing my girlfriend."

The call came from a car on Herold's Rockrimmon Road property, where Travis lived with the 70-year-old widow.

Police said Travis, who had starred in national television commercials, had been agitated all day and took Herold's keys and let himself out of the house. They said after making the animal tea laced with Xanax, Herold called Nash over to help her get the animal inside.

Travis ran at Nash as she exited her vehicle and violently mauled her, police said.

Police said the attack went on for about 10 minutes and Herold attempted to stop it by stabbing Travis with a butcher knife, and later by hitting him with a shovel.

In the 911 call, Herold urged the dispatcher to make sure that responding officers brought guns and she urged him to have them shoot Travis.

"He's eating her," she said.

When police arrived they said the animal went after officers. The animal was shot several times at close range after opening a cruiser door and moving toward an officer, police said.

After running away wounded, Travis was found dead inside his living quarters in the home, police said.

"He was my life, everybody knows it. I mean, I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I lived with him, I slept with him. He was just everything, the only thing I had left." -- Sandra Herold Chimpanzee's Owner

Nash was transported to Stamford Hospital with life-threatening and "life-changing injuries," police said. Neighbors told Eyewitness News that the chimp bit the woman's hands off.

Herold was taken to an area hospital with unknown injuries and was released on Tuesday. The police officer whom Travis lunged at was treated for trauma and shock at the hospital. The officer has since been released from the hospital.

Herold said Tuesday that she wants to get Travis' body for cremation.

"He was my life, everybody knows it. I mean, I cooked for him, I shopped for him, I lived with him, I slept with him," she said. "He was just everything, the only thing I had left."

Neighbors said Herold had owned Travis for about 15 years and that he was raised as her own child.

“I would have never thought Travis was capable of doing this. I don't think anybody was," said Michael Grant, who’s known Herold for years. “Last time I saw Travis, he was in one of the upstairs windows giving monkey cries in the neighborhood. You'd think you were in Africa."

Herold told police that Travis had been suffering from Lyme disease. Police said they were looking at the chimp's medical records to corroborate the story.

Dr. Charles Ray Jones, a Lyme disease specialist in New Haven, said common behaviors of the disease are psychosis and rage.

"Sometimes they have to be on psychotropic medication to control it, then they have to come off," he said. "We've had several children who've had such bizarre and violent reactions that they've had to be hospitalized in a psychiatric unit."

Travis was known to police in town after a brief escape from the family car in downtown Stamford in 2003.

At the time of the 2003 incident, police said the Herolds told them the chimpanzee was toilet trained, dressed himself, took his own bath, ate at the table and drank wine from a stemmed glass. He also brushed his teeth using a Water Pik, logged onto the computer to look at pictures, and watched television using the remote control, police said.

Don Mecca, a family friend from Colchester, N.Y., said Travis was a close companion for Herold, a lonely widow whose daughter had died several years ago in a car accident. She fed him steak, lobster, ice cream and Italian food, "anything she thought he would like to eat," he said.

Herold's nephew, Lewis Tassiello, came to his aunt's defense Tuesday, calling her an animal lover. He said she did everything in her power to try to stop the situation.

"It was an unfortunate incident and we are just heartbroken over the whole thing," he said. "My heart goes out to Charley and her family, hoping she is going to recover. I just want people to know that Sandy is not some kind of monster. She really tried to stop the situation, she couldn't and it is unfortunate that he had to be put down. She did not want that to happen."

The chimpanzee attack has sparked lawmakers and the Humane Society of the United States to renew calls for passing the Captive Primate Safety Act.

U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, along with the Humane Society, lead the call for the legislation, which would prohibit interstate commerce in primates for the pet trade, making it illegal for individuals to buy or transport a pet primate across state lines. It would have no impact on zoos or research. Click Here To Read Full Story

On Wednesday, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also called for changes to state laws that all wild and exotic animals to be kept as pets, often at the descretion of the Department of Environmental Protection. Click Here To Read Full Story