Chimp That Mauled Woman Was on Drugs

A chimp mauled a Connecticut woman while on the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, according to blood tests. The woman, Charla Nash, lost her hands, nose, lips, eyelids and eyesight, and faces two years of surgical procedures after the February attack.

Nash's family has filed a lawsuit suing the chimp's owner for $50 million, and alleges that the anti-anxiety medication only further upset the chimp. Police shot the animal dead as it tried to open the door of a police cruiser, according to The Associated Press.

National Geographic noted that Xanax is also used to treat more common pets such as cats and dogs. Dogs on Xanax have sometimes shown increased aggression after losing their inhibitions.

The incident highlights how strong chimps are for their size, given their powerful upper bodies built for fighting and swinging through trees. Early human ancestors retained that power athlete build much more than modern humans.

It also points to the risks of treating any powerful wild animal, even one as intelligent and human-like as a chimp, as a domesticated pet. Sure, chimps have proven invaluable for scientific research and better understanding humans, and have even flown in space before U.S. astronauts. They also share remarkably similar behaviors to those of humans – using spears to hunt and kill other primates, or even using food to barter for sex.

But despite a European court case last fall where an animal rights activist tried to get a chimpanzee legally declared a person, anthropologists and other experts continually emphasize that chimps are chimps. And whether or not the drug Xanax had unexpected side effects on the chimp in this case, chimps themselves can display as unpredictable behavior as any other animal.