I’m sure everyone remembers the awful story from about a month or so ago of the woman mauled by a chimpanzee in Connecticut. In case you don’t remember, here is the audio from the 911 call. It’s extremely disturbing, just to warn you. In the beginning of the call, you can hear the chimp shrieking as he is presumably still literally ripping the victim, Charla Nash, apart.

Now, the Nash family is suing the owner of Travis the chimp:

The family of a woman mauled by a chimpanzee filed a lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages against the primate’s owner, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control “a wild animal with violent propensities.”

A relative of Charla Nash, who remains in critical condition, filed the lawsuit against Sandra Herold late Monday in Superior Court in Stamford.

The suit also alleges that Herold had given the chimp medication that further upset the animal. Herold has made conflicting public statements about whether she gave Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, to Travis on the day of the attack. The drug had not been prescribed for the animal, police said.

Herold knew the 200-pound chimp, Travis, was agitated when she asked Nash to come to her house on Feb. 16, the lawsuit said. The suit accuses Herold of negligence and recklessness for owning “a wild animal with violent propensities, even though she lacked sufficient skill, strength and/or experience to subdue the chimpanzee when necessary.”

… Nash, 55, lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids and may be blind and suffering brain damage after the attack. She is being treated at the Cleveland Clinic and remained in critical condition Tuesday.

… Herold has speculated that the chimp was trying to protect her and attacked Nash because she had changed her hairstyle, was driving a different car and was holding a stuffed toy in front of her face to get Travis’ attention.

The animal was shot and killed by police, who are weighing whether to file criminal charges against Herold.

Two other people have said that Travis bit them, in 1996 and 1998. A former animal control officer has said that she warned Herold after a 2003 escape that the pet’s behavior was worrisome and she needed to keep it under control.

April Truitt, who runs the Primate Rescue Center in Kentucky, has said she warned Herold of the dangers of keeping the animal in her home. She said she pleaded with Herold to consider placing the chimp in a sanctuary, but Herold was not interested, saying: “You don’t know my Travis.”

When he was younger, Travis starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, made an appearance on the “Maury Povich Show” and took part in a television pilot.

Obviously, the victim’s family has every right to sue. I hope they win. But I gotta say, my heart goes out to Sandra Herold as well. Clearly, the obvious victim here is… well, the victim herself. But listening to that 911 call, I couldn’t help but think of how awful this must be for Herold herself. From what news outlets have reported, when the chimp started attacking Nash, Herold stabbed him repeatedly, doing everything she could to get him away from her friend. And when she pleads with the 911 dispatcher for the police to kill him, I just couldn’t help but feel horrible for her as well.

It would be ridiculous to say that Herold should have had the chimpanzee. She shouldn’t have, especially knowing that he’d attacked people twice before and had been warned that he belonged in a sanctuary, not in a private home. She should have gotten rid of him. But in a story like this, every party involved is a victim, even Sandra Herold. Yes, she was negligient. But just imagine if a pet you had owned for what, fifteen years?, attacked one of your friends, and you had to stab him yourself to get him to stop. Imagine pleading with police to kill your pet. That had to have been heartbreaking — and then add in the fact that you’ve just witnessed your friend being horribly mutilated.

Just an awful story all around.

Of course, the Nash family deserves every penny that they’re asking for. Poor Charla Nash will quite obviously never be the same again.

Let this be a lesson for everyone. No matter what PETA says, animals are not cute, friendly little creatures straight out of a Disney movie who would all live in peace and harmony if only us damned humans would get out of the way.