WaPo reports:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A chimpanzee that mauled a Connecticut woman had the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in its system, according to toxicology tests, but investigators haven’t determined whether the drug played a role in the attack, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The 200-pound chimp, named Travis, attacked Stamford resident Charla Nash on Feb. 16. She lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack. Doctors at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic say she is blind and faces two years of surgical procedures.

Nash’s family has sued Herold for $50 million. The suit alleges, among other things, that she had given Travis medication that further upset the animal.

“I think it provides tremendous support for the plaintiff’s case,” said Paul Slager, a catastrophic injury attorney in Stamford. “I think it’s understood by everyone that Xanax is medication intended to be used by people, not animals. I suspect that experts will agree it’s difficult to predict how an animal like a chimpanzee would respond to taking a medication like Xanax.”

Travis’s owner suffers from a problem that I believe is common among pet owners. This class of humans can not make a distinction between people and other creatures. It is true that all living things are made by the same stuff and processes, but real differences do exist between these living things. As close as we are to chimps genetically, for example, the few differences express big differences. The chimp body is not the same as the human body. The chimp nervous system is not the same as the human nervous system. Ours is far more complicated than theirs. These difference must be respected. Do not give your pets Xanax.

This post owes its brief life to Bethany Jean Clement.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

20 replies on “News From the Animal Kingdom”

  3. People are not so predictable either. Drugs can have different effects on different people. So the effects on animals can be drastic because of altered chemistry, brain differences, kidney functions, and size or body weight, etc. Still and all, chimps are not good pets. We know in the wild they can be killers. They have that in common with humans.

  6. How about, don’t give pets (or people) prescription medication that wasn’t prescribed for them? Because Alprazolam (Xanax) is actually a VERY common prescription medication for dogs, given out by vets all the time.

  9. Everyone knows you treat simian anxiety with Cognitive therapy? *So when you wee the banana you worry that it’s the only one, and that if you eat it you won’t have any more bananas? Don’t you think it unlikely that your human would give you her last banana?*

  10. I’ll second what both @6 and @3 said.

    Pharmaceuticals can cause different reactions and have different effects based on the chemistry of the individual – which is why two dogs (or humans) being treated for the same ailment (behavioral or physical) may be prescribed different medications. What works for one does not de facto work for all.

    Once you start factoring in differences between species and how certain chemicals are processed by (and effect) the body of the animal that has ingested it – then you increase the chances that adverse or ‘unforeseen’ conditions or situations will be present.

    Just as some medicines that are approved for use in adults can have serious negative effects in children (due to their still developing systems as well as the size difference), the same caution should apply when it comes to off-label use of meds (unless there is a body of sollid research to prove that there is a valid reason why the drug should be used to treat a ‘new’ condition in a ‘new’ class of patient) – especially in the case of giving non-humans medicine intended for humans.

    I’m sure that more will come out about this in the weeks to come. It will, no doubt be interesting.

  17. When drugs used in a veterinary context work differently in the critter than they would in a human, it is usually due to metabolic differences and/or to differences in liver/renal physiology that make the drugs toxic. Lots of psychiatric drugs are used in veterinary medicine, to do the same things that they do to humans. Including sedatives.

    Anti-anxiety (note: xanax isn’t an SSRI, it’s a benzo) drugs sometimes precipitate aggression in humans as well.

    This has nothing to do with neurological complexity.

  18. Personally, I think the folks who think the crazy lady has $50 million dollars are probably a little deluded too.

  20. if Charles and the posters are correct — differences between individuals and species have implications for expression and interaction — then I’d like someone to explain to me why it’s acceptable to “test” these drugs on non-humans prior to mass marketing them as safe for humans. Sounds like it’s time to start using technologies that are proven to predict and explain.
    http://curedisease.com/video.html

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