March
9, 2005: Rebellion or Rage?
By Ahchie
The
questions and speculations about last week’s brutal
chimpanzee attack, often muttered in hushed whispers, are spewing forth
in full force. “Why?” “How could this happen?” “The
people must have provoked the chimps in some way.” “What would
cause two chimpanzees to attack with such ferocity?” “Why did
they have to kill the chimps?” “It can’t be their fault;
chimps wouldn’t just attack without a reason.” “We need
more land set aside so the chimps can roam free and be happy.” “Why
don’t the news stories mention that his testicles were torn off?”
“Why would the man think he could reason with the attacking animals?”
“What kind of a first name is Saint James?” “What went wrong?”
The key question is “What went wrong?” While people and “experts” will examine the attack and ultimately come to a conclusion that somehow blames man for an animal being an animal, the answer to what went wrong can actually be narrowed down to two distinct possibilities. While the first is rather remote, making the second far more likely, it is important to consider both.
The
first possibility is that this is the beginning of the transition to a real
life Planet of the Apes. In this scenario,
the chimpanzees have figured out that people will be slow to respond while
spending countless hours debating why good animals go bad. Emboldened by their
success in this assault, the chimpanzees are going to unite worldwide and
launch an all out war against humanity. While mankind is distracted dealing
with North Korea and other rogue nations that are going nuclear, the chimpanzees
will unleash their own weapons of mass destruction. Within a decade, the only
people left will be mute and will be kept in human zoos, while the English-speaking
chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans organize a new society where people
are seen as nothing more than filthy animals.
The
other, and more likely, probability is summed up in one word…Rage. In
this explanation, it turns out the film 28
Days Later was not just another twist on zombie movies. The Rage is for
real and it has been unleashed in West Covina, California. Soon the man that
had his testicles, fingers and portions of his face torn and chewed off by
two rage-filled chimps will turn into a rage-filled zombie himself. The man
lying in a Bakersfield hospital bed breathing “minute by minute”
must be destroyed before the Rage sets in. In the movie, the switch from mild
mannered human to rage-filled zombie was immediate. In reality, no one knows
how long it may take. The Rage will fester inside the mutilated man and eventually
he will launch a crazed attack against everyone around him. As he attacks,
he will spread the Rage to his victims. If he is not stopped in time, and
if the people of California continue to ignore the warning signs, the entire
state will become a desolate wasteland as the Rage spreads unmercifully. If
it is allowed to spread from city to city, the United States government will
have to move quickly to isolate the state and prevent the Rage from infecting
the rest of the nation. Not surprisingly, various terrorist groups will attempt
to claim responsibility for releasing the deadly Rage, but chances are high
that no one will ever figure out how it really started. There will even be
suggestions that Bill Gates had something to do with it.
Whether the chimpanzees are amassing the great rebellion or the Rage is set to run rampant throughout the country, the people of the world have reached a key moment in history with this latest chimpanzee attack. As with any other global crisis, while the French and their odiferous European counterparts drag their feet, it is the response by the United States that will be crucial to either ensure peace and freedom from chimpanzee tyranny or to quash the Rage before it gets out of control.
911 Tapes Released From Chimp Attack
KFSN TV, Fresno, March 7, 2005
Officials have released part of the 911 tape from the chimpanzee attack we first told you about last week.
The California couple, Saint James and Ladonna Davis, were attacked by two escaped chimps while visiting their own chimp at an animal sanctuary in Kern county.
During an interview on Good Morning America, Ladonna said there was no stopping the attack, "My husband must have realized we were in deep trouble because he pushed me backwards and by the table and at that time, at that time they both went for him. One was at his head and the other one was at his foot."
Ladonna says during the attack, Saint James was not really screaming, but seemed to be trying to reason with the chimps.
He also tried to protect his hands, but was unsuccessful.
Ladonna emphasized that you can't judge all chimps by this incident because individual chimpanzees are as different as humans.
Woman says her husband saved her in chimpanzee attack
KESQ TV, March 7, 2005
NEW YORK -- The woman involved in a brutal chimpanzee attack says her husband is breathing "minute by minute."
In an interview with A-B-C's "Good Morning America" today, LaDonna Davis says her husband pushed her away from the animals and took the brunt of the violence to save her.
Two male chimps viciously attacked her and St. James Davis at an animal sanctuary near Bakersfield where they were visiting their former pet chimp, Moe.
Davis says a male chimp chomped her finger and her husband lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek and lips in the attack. It happened so fast, she said "there was no time for thinking."
She says doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center are only telling
her that he's breathing.
In her words: "That's what I keep relying on ... that he keeps breathing."
Ferocity of chimpanzee attack stuns medics, leaves questions
Los Angeles Times, David Pierson and Mitchell Landsberg, March 6, 2005
HAVILAH,
Calif. -- St. James and LaDonna Davis raised Moe the chimp as their son. That
was the word they used to describe him, and that was how they treated him
-- like a hairy, rambunctious child who was a pampered member of the family.
They taught him to wear clothes, to take showers, to use the toilet, and to watch television in their West Covina, Calif., home.
On Thursday, the day they marked as Moe's 39th birthday, their love for the chimp nearly cost them their lives.
The Davises were visiting Moe at an animal sanctuary in the hills of eastern Kern County -- a place to which he had been banished after biting a woman -- when they were attacked by two other chimps and brutally mauled.
St. James Davis took the brunt of the attack, the ferocity of which left paramedics stunned. ''I had no idea a chimpanzee was capable of doing that to a human," said Kern County Fire Captain Curt Merrell, who was on the scene.
Davis, who remained in critical condition Friday, was badly disfigured. According to his wife, he lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek and lips, and part of his buttocks. His foot was mutilated and his heel bone was cracked.
LaDonna, 61, said she was sitting at a table with her husband, getting ready to cut the chimp's birthday cake, when she saw the two other chimps out of the corner of her eye. Moe, according to other accounts, was still in his cage.
''I turned around and they started charging," she said. One of the chimps pushed her against her husband and at some point her left thumb was bit off, she said.
''James saw that, pushed me behind a table and took the brunt of everything else," she said.
The attack ended when the son-in-law of the sanctuary's owners shot and killed the two rampaging chimps. Moe was uninjured.
Among the questions for which there were no immediate answers: How did the two chimps escape? And why did they attack?
The
chimps were housed in outdoor cages at the Animal Haven Ranch, a private sanctuary.
The ranch is owned by Ralph and Virginia Brauer, and has been licensed by
the state since 1996 to take in primates, usually from zoos that no longer
want them.
According to Kern County Sheriff's Commander Hal Chealander, Virginia Brauer was at home Thursday morning when she was startled to discover that four chimps -- two young males and two older females -- had gotten out of their cages and entered her home.
She reportedly detained the two females, Suzie, 59, and Bones, 49. The male chimps -- Buddy, 15, and Ollie, 13 -- escaped. Virginia Brauer gave chase, and soon found the chimps mauling the Davises, Chealander said.
''Get your gun!" Brauer yelled to her son-in-law, Mark Carruthers, who was at her home with his wife and infant son, Chealander said.
Male chimps usually stand about 4 feet tall and weigh between 90 and 120 pounds, specialists say. They are strong and aggressive animals who routinely kill and devour much larger animals in the wild. Their upper body strength is said to be five to 10 times that of the average human.
Carruthers shot Ollie, but the shot had no apparent effect. He reloaded the gun with more powerful, fully jacketed, ammunition, this time turning on the first chimp, Buddy.
Carruthers ''kneeled down, got pretty close and shot the first chimp in the head," Chealander said. ''When he fell off Mr. Davis, the second chimp attacked Mr. Davis and dragged him down a walkway by the back of the house. . . . By this time, Mr. Davis was really torn up."
Carruthers followed, and shot the second chimp in the head, ending the attack.
Ape
specialist Deborah Fouts, director of the Chimp and Human Communication Institute
at Central Washington University, said the attack may have been prompted by
jealousy.
''Chimpanzees have a real sense of right and wrong and fairness and unfairness," said Fouts, a veteran of four decades of work with chimps. ''It sounds like people were showering a lot of attention on Moe, birthday cake and the like. . . . Perhaps the other chimps were jealous of Moe."
Davis Family faces serious challenge after chimpanzee attack
WhoWon.com, Dave Grayson, March 5, 2005
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- It was sad to learn that former NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series driver St. James Davis is currently in a hospital, reported to be in critical condition, after being attacked by two chimpanzees who escaped from their cages at a wild life sanctuary near Bakersfield. His wife and crew chief, LaDonna Davis, was treated for animal bites.
According to wire reports, from the Associated Press, the Davises were visiting the Animal Haven Ranch -- a sanctuary for retired zoo animals -- on Thursday, March 3, in Havilah, Calif., approximately 20 miles south of Bakersfield. They were specifically there to visit their pet chimpanzee, Moe, and throw him a birthday party. Moe had been placed at the animal sanctuary in 1999 after he bit off the tip of a woman's finger who was visiting the Davis home in West Covina.
Somewhere around 11:30 a.m. Thursday morning, four chimpanzees at the sanctuary escaped from their cages. Two of them turned on the Davises and attacked them. The vicious primates were killed at the scene by zoo officials. The remaining two chimps at large were captured approximately one hour later, and returned to their cages. It's still unknown exactly how the animals escaped from their confined area.
St. James was airlifted to the Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield for treatment where he was listed in critical condition. According to a prepared statement from a hospital spokesman, released via the Associated Press, Davis sustained severe facial injuries from the attack and will need extensive surgery to reattach his nose. It was also reported that his testicles and a foot were also severed during the attack. LaDonna was treated for the animal bites she sustained while attempting to fend off the attack, and released.
To
fully understand the powerful emotion of this tragedy, you have to be aware
of how Moe became a part of the Davis family to begin with. He was adopted
by the Davises approximately 35 years ago and quickly became the child the
couple never had. Moe's adoption literally saved his life. At the time, St.
James was in Africa participating in a boat race. Also at that time government
officials there were concerned about the rising numbers of the ape population
and initiated a reduction program. As the adult apes were killed, their babies
were left behind to die. Their extremities were cut off and used to manufacture
afrodisiacs. Their hands and feet were cut off to be sold while the rest of
their bodies were left lying on the ground.
Moe's mother had been killed when he was only a few days old. St James happened to run into a man on a street corner who had tiny Moe inside of his pocket. St. James immediately fell in love with the tiny monkey and could not bear the thought that he had been sentenced to death. He decided to adopt Moe but, as it turned out, the red tape and paperwork was easier said than done and St. James had to spend an additional three months in Africa before he could bring Moe to his new home.
It
was immediately apparent that Moe was smarter than the average monkey and,
with training from his new parents, soon developed quite a few talents. Moe
soon became a source of income for the Davis family and did work in movies
and television and even appeared on the old game show Bowling For Dollars.
St. James noted that Moe loves to bowl and said "he can't place his fingers
in the holes of the bowling ball so he uses to palm of his hand to roll the
ball down the alley and then dances up and down when the pill fall over."
Moe also made personal appearances at many functions, such as birthday parties, and even signed autographs for his growing number of fans. It was LaDonna who taught him how to sign his name. All the letters in the name Mogambo were a little too much to learn, so she taught him how to write M-O-E and that became the primate's lifelong nick name.
Moe also developed a talent for driving that came from a go kart that St. James made for him. Moe wasn't exactly good at stopping the cart and turning off the engine. Whenever he was through driving he would stand up on the seat and jump off leaving the kart to wildly around the back yard until it ran into something and stopped itself.
It was that ability to drive that first brought Moe to the attention of the Los Angeles-based media. Every weekday St. James would drive Moe home from the studio he was working at and stop at a local gas station near his home. He would put some gas in the two-seat roadster he was driving at the time and then let Moe drive the remaining few blocks home.
It didn't take long for the word to get out about the car driving monkey and every afternoon spectators would gather on the sidewalk, between the gas station and the Davis home, to wave at Moe as he drove by. While it was natural that a car driving monkey would attract a lot of attention, it was also natural that someone was going to have a problem with it.
When that someone complained to the West Covina Police it was, needless to say, greatly embellished and local authorities thought that some crazed animal the size of King Kong was terrorizing the Davis home. With local police, a swat unit, animal control and the Los Angeles media at the scene, the front of the house looked like it was under siege that day. Moe just took everything in his stride and went to his cage for a nap. ST James explained to authorities that everything was fine and Moe took a nap everyday at the same time and they would have to come back tomorrow.
The local court system in West Covina was in a quandry over this case. It was clear that something was going to have be done but no one knew exactly what to do. Adding to the situation was the fact that the media had completely fallen in love with Moe and was giving the court hearing massive coverage because, after all, how often does a monkey get busted for driving without a license? In the final resolution the judge, who also was captivated by Moe, issued the monkey an honorary California driver's license and ST James agreed not to let him drive on city streets and state highways anymore.
The happy times in the Davis household came to a crashing halt late in 1999 when judicial officials from the City of West Covina alleged that Moe had inflicted injury to people. That story was carried by KTTV, a Los Angeles based Fox Network affiliate, who back then quoted West Covina City Attorney Martin Meyer as saying "this is not a situation where we have a cute little monkey, this is a very dangerous animal."
The news report also stated that a news group caught Moe on videotape when the chimp got out of the house and out of control. The report alleged that Moe charged an animal control officer and also allegedly bit the hand of a police officer. The situation was compounded later in 1999 when Moe bit off a woman's fingertip. The woman put her hand inside of his cage despite the fact that the Davises warned her not to do it. The woman had long red fingernails at the time. It was pointed out that Moe's favorite treat was red licorice and when he saw the red fingernails he mistook it for a treat.
In the legal aftermath from 1999, City Attorney Meyer was quoted as saying "I believe they love the monkey and I, quite candidly, think that's one of the problems. I think that love has blinded them to the fact that the animal has become dangerous."
There were many others who did not agree with the city's actions. Chief among them was famed attorney Gloria Allred who represented the Davis family in 1999. Allred, who has garnered national fame for championing cause like this, said she believed the City of West Covina was arrogant for removing Moe from his home and further stated "this is not about a chimpanzee, this is about the break up of a family." The sentiment was reinforced by a petition signed by over 8,000, who demanded that the court allow Moe to be returned home.
Unfortunately for the Davises, justice prevailed and part of the resolution to satisfy the criminal complaint from the City of West Covina was an agreement that Moe would be sent to the Animal Haven Ranch in Havilah. The ensuing civil action, brought by the two injured parties, was reported to be settled.
But the settlement came at a huge cost. The legal bills alone were astronomical and that brought an end to Davis Racing. At a point in life when St. James had already decided to retire from active driving, the plan was to put a young, up-and-coming driver behind the wheel of the Davis Racing Pontiac and develop him in the NASCAR West Series. Those plans were put on hold and likely will not be addressed again.
The racing careers of St. James and LaDonna are as colorful as their adventures with Moe. The racing career of St. James dates back to more than five decades. In fact, he would probably would be hard pressed to remember a time when he wasn't racing something back in those days. Over the years he raced bicycles, motorcycles, cars, boats and planes. He always had a love for the sound of a motor, a curiosity for what makes an engine tick and the fire that makes someone want to out perform a competitor.
His car racing exploits alone covered every racing division you could name: late models, street stocks, figure eights, demolition derbies and modifieds at the local level. On a more prominent note he spent five years running in the NASCAR Grand National Division, now known as the NEXTEL Cup Series, as well as the USAC Stock Car Series. He spent the last 20 years of his career with the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series and built his cars out of a shop located behind his West Covina home.
While the team struggled with sponsorship issues, that enduring spirit in both them that made them want to go racing never faltered. St. James enjoyed the prestige of finishing ninth in the Winston West points standings in 1997. There were many times in the late nineties when St. James seriously thought about retiring as an active driver. It was LaDonna -- his crew chief, engine builder and wife -- that kept him going. She has the distinction of being one of the very few female crew chiefs and engine builders in organized racing.
During their tenure with the NASCAR Grand National Series, there were times when LaDonna actually had to disguise herself as a man. Back in those days the only women that were allowed in a major league NASCAR pit area were the beauty queens who made appearances in victory lane. In most cases these women were sequestered in an office building until the race was over.
Despite the fact that LaDonna was the registered car owner and crew chief of the car her husband drove, there were no exceptions to the rule. LaDonna had to stuff here lovely blonde hair under a cap, don a pair of oversized mechanic's overalls and masquerade as a man to get into the pits to do her engine work on the car.
The Davis' have some of the best racing stories that you would ever want to listen to and that's just one of the many qualities that has endeared them to so many people over the years. Add the presence of Moe to their personal stories and you've got a very special racing family.
It's extremely sad that St. James is now hospitalized because of an attack from the hand of the very same animal species that he spent so many years loving and protecting. Over a decade ago LaDonna was quoted as saying "I believe in God, karma and fair treatment."
They're going to need plenty of all three of those elements before they see a restoration to family, a happy home life and perhaps even a return to motorsports.
My thoughts and prayers are with St. James and LaDonna Davis during this most difficult ordeal.