Travis, the chimp who mauled a Stamford, CT woman, was cremated last week at the request of the Herold family, who owned the 200 pound chimp.
Eileen Donofrio, office manager for All Pets Crematory & Remembrances in Stamford, said that, as far as she knows, it was the first cremation of a primate at the Myrtle Avenue pet crematory.
April Truitt, who runs the Primate Rescue Center in Kentucky, said she warned Herold of the dangers of keeping the animal in her home in 2003 after she heard Travis jumped out of the Herolds’ car at a downtown Stamford intersection and eluded capture for two hours.
“Travis was a ticking time bomb, and keeping him in the house and trying to domesticate him was a really, really bad idea,” Truitt said. “He wasn’t going to put up with it forever.”
She pleaded with Herold to consider placing the chimp in a sanctuary, but Herold was not interested, saying, “You don’t know my Travis,” Truitt said.
Source: The Advocate, Stamford, CT.