Travis was a big chimpanzee, weighing 200 pounds. Sandra Herold a USA citizen,citizen, took care of him since he was a baby. He lived with her for more than ten years.
Popularly known as 'Travis the chimp ', he was very friendly and loving. People in the area knew him well because he often went out with Sandra in her car or when she was doing things around town.
But in February 2009, something really scary happened. As Charla Nash, Sandra's best friend was entering their house, out of nowhere Travis attacked Charla Nash very badly.He attacked her very aggressively. He hurt her so badly that she got very serious injuries and became permanently disfigured and blind.
Her whole face was mutilated by the chimp. The terrified owner watched her friend being eaten and thrashed as she locked herself into the car and called police as she knew, she would be the next target as chimp had already seen her entering the car. As police arrived, chimp tried to attack the policemen. He was ultimately shot down to death by the cops.
It was a big shock for the town and the whole country.This sad thing didn't just hurt the people in the town, but it also made them talk a lot about whether it's safe to keep wild animals as pets.
The sad event made people think deeply and ask for stronger rules about owning exotic animals. People who support this idea said that animals like Travis should live in the wild where they can be themselves and live with other animals, instead of being kept in houses where they can't be happy.
Travis's story shows us that keeping wild animals as pets is really risky. Even though they can make us happy sometimes, these animals can do unexpected and dangerous things. This was shown by what happened to Charla Nash, which was very sad.