Feb 24, 2009 8:43 am US/Eastern
'Travis' Attacked Another Woman 8 Years Ago
Dina McInerney Tells CBS 2 HD Exclusively Of Incident When Infamous Chimp Nearly Took Off Her Thumb
"Oh My God ... That Could Have Been Me"
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis, attacked and critically injured a 55-year-old woman in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 16. Another attack victim told her story recently to CBS 2 HD.
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It's been one week since a family's pet chimp went berserk and viciously attacked a woman, nearly killing her. Now it's revealed the attack in Stamford, Conn., wasn't the only time "Travis the chimp" misbehaved.
CBS 2 HD recently sat down with another woman who spoke to us exclusively about another incident involving the rambunctious primate.
The attack on 55-year-old Charla Nash last week was so fierce the victim will need massive reconstructive surgery to her face and hands.
However the chimpanzee involved in the horror of that day, it turns out, was no stranger to attacking humans.
it's happened before.
"The pressure from his gums was so intense, I could not speak," Dina McInerney told CBS 2 HD.
McInerney was attacked by that same chimpanzee. It was eight years ago. It all happened in less than a minute.
"I bent down forward this way and he went 'wap' and he hit me dead center and I thought my nose was busted," McInerney said.
Then, it went after her hands.
"He had gotten a hold of my thumb and he was biting down so hard that it felt like he was going to take it," McInerney said. "I didn't think it was going to be there when I took it out."
She was able to get away after two men pried the chimpanzee off her. She escaped with only bruises, but the question now is, was it a first sign of the chimp's violent behavior?
Eight years later, for 12 minutes, the chimp attacked the face and hands of Nash. The owner called 9-1-1.
"He's going to attack anybody," owner Sandra Herold told the 9-1-1 dispatcher.
In Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, lawmakers will vote on whether to ban having primates in the home.
"We don't believe primates should be pets," said Patrick Thomas, general curator at the Bronx Zoo.
Experts say they're too unpredictable, especially as they age.
"As they reach sexual maturity, there's a corresponding rise in testosterone level, oftentimes, leads to a change in behavior. They tend to get more aggressive," Thomas said.
"He was far too aggressive to be treated like a human baby."
The chimp was dressed in children's clothes when McInerney saw Travis.
As an animal lover she asked the owner if she could get closer. She got a yes. That's when the chimp went after her.
"She treated him like a child, and he's not a child. He's a wild animal," McInerney said.
Herold knows that now, all too well.
"He tried to attack me, hurry, hurry," Herold told the 9-1-1 dispatcher.
"Oh my God, that could have been me," McInerney said.
The Captive Primate Safety Act is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives very quickly on Tuesday.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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