At least they didn’t claim they thought they were pit bulls. But as people like Charla Nash and Andrew Oberle can tell you, a 170 lb. rampaging chimpanzee – let alone two – is nothing to monkey around with. According to officer.com, police were called by a woman who was trapped in her car with one of the chimps on top. Officers tried to corral the two until animal control could arrive with tranquilizer darts, but one of them moved toward a crowd of people. “‘We have an exotic animals policy. It’s to treat them as humanely as we can,’ (Officer Marcus) Martin said. ‘But immediately you recall the woman who has no face because of a chimp. The officer knew they were dangerous animals and he was the last line of defense with citizens behind him.'” That’s when the cop put him down with three blasts from a shotgun. The second chimp was also shot, but with a couple of sleepytime darts and safely returned to her cage. So the answer to the question, ‘what caliber for chimpanzee?’ appears to be settled.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. a 170 pound primate. 3 rounds from what i assume is a 12 bore. i have primates on my block that weigh more than 170. gonna have to increase my reserve of buckshot.

  2. ‘We have an exotic animals policy. It’s to treat them as humanely as we can,’

    However, less exotic animals like dogs will be shot on sight. Thank you.

  4. “‘We have an exotic animals policy. It’s to treat them as humanely as we can,’ (Officer Marcus) Martin said.
    — I don’t hunt (maybe someday I will) etc yet that above statement reads bleeding heart sappy.

    It took ‘three’ shotgun blasts to put him down? Wow.

  5. i have hunted. i don’t know the exact circumstances here, but it can be difficult to hit a moving target. assumimg 00 buck the pattern might have been open enough to miss more than hit. a lot of unknowns involved. what is known is how deadly chimps can be. bad moment for all involved.

  6. Chimps, despite their cuddly image, are dangerous wild animals, with a strength that is much greater pound for pound than a human. In the wild, chimps form raiding parties to go out and make war on other tribes of chimps, viciously maiming and killing each other. They are not to be trifled with.

    • So why are we such wimps compared to the rest of the great apes? Even baby gorillas are stronger than full grown humans. Where did we lose out in the genetics department?

        • This is highly plausible, at least as part of the explanation. Our brains are huge compared to body size, and they come with an equally huge metabolic cost. That kind of investment doesn’t come with some kind of trade off.

      • Because we aren’t related to chimps. Or anything for that matter. Look up “holes in evolutionary timeline” or “missing links are missing”, you’ll see what I mean

        • I think you might want to consider a class or two of college level evolutionary biology. Not to be mean, but it doesn’t help gun owner’s images when we associate ignorance with the fight to keep and expand gun rights.

      • My pretty much completely uneducated guess is that it relates to a more sophisticated motor-control and cognitive ability in humans. We just don’t require as much strength to get things done, therefore brute strength hasn’t been as prominent a deciding factor in survival.

      • There’s no clear answer to that question, but a few of the likely factors are muscle density, leverage due to their joint arrangement, the disproportionate size of their hands and feet, and the efficiency of their muscle contraction due to the relative lack of fine motor control (i.e. proportionally more of their nerve pathways are devoted to gross contraction of the muscle as opposed to discrete control of appendages ). Also primates are in really good shape, because they spend a lot of time climbing, breaking things open, fighting, screwing, and generally running around like a bunch of monkeys.

        FWIW the popular estimates of primate strength are often overstated. They’re not actually 4 or 5 times as strong, for weight. A more realistic estimate is that they are approximately twice as strong. Keep in mind that they’re typically smaller, with oversized limbs. So they can accomplish physical feats like those of a gymnast. Also they attack with extreme aggression, which can cause observers to overestimate their strength.

      • “the cop put [the chimp] down with three blasts from a shotgun.”

        As is frequently said, “God made men; Sam Colt made them equal”.

  7. Oh man that’s a shame. Chimps of course can be extremely dangerous, and if they felt the animal was a danger, they did what they had to do…..but if I were in the same shoes, it would break my heart to have to shoot a primate.

    • Chimps should not be pets. OR put on display. They should be left in the wild. For exactly this reason.

  8. Better three blasts of 12 gauge buckshot than get your (or anyone else’s) face eaten off by some idiot’s monkey.

    • Toxicology reports aren’t back from the lab yet but they suspect Bath Salts were a factor… 🙂

  9. Maybe they were on bath salts. I would like to know from where they came. It’s inhumane when individuals keep such animals for pets.

    • Layers of paperwork?
      I could find a gun on armslist right now and go buy it. No paperwork, no hassles.
      Even buying from a dealer only takes a 4473.

  11. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:”
    [ King James Version. Old Testament. Genesis. ]

    “Scientists have sequenced the genome of the chimpanzee and found that humans are 96 percent similar to the great ape species.”
    [ National Geographic news. ]

    “In failing to apply the qualities of Conscience and adhere to simple Moral Codes of thought and conduct — ‘humans’ consistently prove themselves to be the most dangerous animals to have ever inhabited the planet.”
    Gw

    Question = “Do Apes have the right to keep and bear arms?”
    [ question recalled from a post on the internet, many years ago. ]

  12. Nice work on the part of the police. I’d shoot the chimp 3 times as well – its a good way to make damn sure that thing is dead.

  13. A couple of years ago, I found out we had an “exotic animal” compound near my home. How I found out was watching the news and hearing the owner got eaten by their bear. Then they mentioned that there was also a lion, cougar and a tiger on the place. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4319661-walz-bear-reptiles-cougar. So now in addition to the wild bears we have in the area, I have to keep aware of the possibility of an escaped lion or tiger with zero fear of humans waiting outside some night, looking for dinner. Shooting the chimp? Sounds like the police used unusual patience before taking out the primate, and that they made the right decision.

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