chimp lady in Montana (Billings, Red Lodge: house, buying, living)

[seven of nine]

Did anyone else see this interview on the Today show? Anyone have thoughts or experience, they claimed she was outside of Billings.

Today Show Video Player

Looks like you have to click on the pic of the lady with the chimps to get the video.

[mtboy]

She lives in Boyd. Tiny town between Joliet and Red Lodge. I guess the Sheriff's have been told they have the authority to shoot them if they get out again, and cause terror like they did last time. I didn't realize that they were that expensive.

[wannadanc]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

Did anyone else see this interview on the Today show? Anyone have thoughts or experience, they claimed she was outside of Billings.

Today Show Video Player

If you close your eyes and just listen to the babble of the "mother", you would swear she is a clone of octoMom - I mean, it is that same type of unrealistic nonsense.

[AQHA]

I saw that story this morning, crazy... She is a slave to those animals. her house is like a jail. To each his own I guess. I have horses and cattle, some might think that doesn't make sense.

[seven of nine]

Sorry AQHA, while you might occasionally bunk out in the barn with your horse, it is not sleeping in your bed or watching tv...This lady is nutso, and I am the huge animal lover. IMO she is abusing these chimps by giving them an artificial life. Good thing most here are armed, I know I would have no problem trailing the poor things and put them out of their miserable existence, then call the crazy wagon for the lady.

[seven of nine]

Originally Posted by mtboy

She lives in Boyd. Tiny town between Joliet and Red Lodge. I guess the Sheriff's have been told they have the authority to shoot them if they get out again, and cause terror like they did last time. I didn't realize that they were that expensive.

Thanks for the location. I always wonder when something in Montana is "just outside Billings"could mean hundreds of miles. What a weirdo, how the heck did she afford them or how does she support herself now? Maybe TT could take them on an "exotic" hunt.

[GEORGIAINMT]

After the incident a week or so ago where that chimp attacked the owner's friend and badly disfigured her I don't know why anyone would want to own these animals. It is very sad about the lady and her injuries, and this could probably happen to anyone, as the chimp "knew" the lady he attacked. Not to mention what others said about it not being the right environment for chimps to live. My opinion is that they are just fine in zoos (in environmentally friendly to them) secured areas, if not in their natural habitats.

[Redraven]

There used to be a rather wealthy lady who lived near Martin City who had a monkey of some kind. She was a friend of my Mother's, and I hated to go visit there because of that fool animal.
Dogs and cats create enough problems, I would NEVER want a monkey in the house!

[rickers]

When I lived at Salmon Beach Tacoma Wa. There is a trail behind the cabins to get from house to house and up to the parking lot. The guy who used to own the house that I ended up buying had a pet monkey. He would just let it out loose to do his business. The monkey would like to hang out in some tree limbs directly above the trail and leap down to land on the heads of people walking on the trail. It scared the **** out of anyone who didn't know to watch out for the monkey.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by AQHA

I saw that story this morning, crazy... She is a slave to those animals. her house is like a jail. To each his own I guess. I have horses and cattle, some might think that doesn't make sense.

AQHA - while I agree with the "to each his own" there's a huge difference between cattle, horses, cats, dogs, etc. etc. and ANY monkey. The cattle, horses, cats, dogs, et al species have been domesticated over hundreds (in some cases thousands) of years. Through selective breeding, domestication took place and all those animals now grow/develop/behave in a way that allows them to live either with or alongside humans in comparative safety for both parties. Do you go play with the bull in the field? Obviously not because we are all aware (due to domestication) how bulls behave and we manage them accordingly.

Therein lies the rub. Take a chimp and put it in the middle of "civilisation" and you are asking for trouble. It's really very simple - they do not belong outside of where they "occur" naturally. End of.

Look, I HATE legislation that's going to tell me what I can and cannot own. But if that is going to be what it takes, I have to say I'd support it because a) I personally think making a chimp a human is downright cruel and b) wild animals belong in the wild. For whatever bizarre reason, we humans seem to think that we should be able to have any sort of animal adjust to living the way we do. It's insane (and in the case of this woman in particular, I'd mean it quite literally.) To me anyway, there's a huge difference between something like banning primates from personal ownership and BSL for dogs for example.

Once the hospital released the details of the poor soul in CT... quite frankly, it should make people think twice. For those of you either unfamiliar with the case or just can't be bothered to look it up: she lost her nose, her lips, her eyelids, both her hands are mangled, her facial bones were crushed, her vision is probably gone, and they're still trying to determine the extent of her brain damage.

I am an animal lover of the highest order, really I am. But in this specific instance I have to admit I'd shoot first and ask questions later.