A deputy in Oregon shot and killed an owner’s chimpanzee after receiving a call that the animal attacked her daughter, CBS News reports.
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Sterrin Ward said Tamara Brogoitti, 68, called authorities Sunday morning when her 50-year-old daughter sought refuge in a basement bathroom after being bitten in the torso, arms and legs by a roughly 200-pound chimpanzee that had been living with her for 17 years. When deputies arrived, the chimpanzee, named Buck, could be seen roaming outside the home in a fenced area.
Deputies told Brogoitti that they needed to “put down” the chimpanzee in order to get her daughter the immediate medical attention that she required. After receiving her permission, Buck was shot once in the head. Brogoitti and her daughter were then taken to a local hospital. While Lt. Ward said this was the first time that Brogoitti reported an incident involving Buck, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, condemned Brogoitti for creating a “ticking time bomb” situation by depriving Buck of companionship with other chimpanzees.
“PETA warned state authorities that Tamara Brogoitti had created a ticking time bomb by engaging in direct contact with a dangerous ape, and now, he is dead and a woman has been mauled because of Brogoitti’s refusal to follow experts’ advice and transfer Buck to an accredited sanctuary,” Brittany Peet, PETA’s Deputy General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said in a statement.
Peet added that ever since the 2009 attack on Charla Nash in which her face was ripped off, people have been warned of inevitable attacks if they “continue to treat chimpanzees like Chihuahuas.”
