Xanax Linked to Chimp Attack on Charla Nash

I'm not surprised that benzos were involved in this nightmare.  Apparently humans aren't the only ones being affected by these evil drugs:

"Travis the Chimp was the pet of 70-year-old Sandra Herold. He drank wine from a stemmed glass, clothed and bathed himself, enjoyed watering flowers and loved to watch the New York Yankees play baseball. After appearing agitated, Herold told the police she put Xanax in Travis the Chimp's tea, but to no avail. The chimp let himself out the kitchen door (he used a key on the locked door) and began hitting the car doors, indicating that he wanted to go for a ride. Sandra Herold then called her 55-year-old friend, Charla Nash, to assist her in corralling Travis and getting him back into the house.

When Charla Nash arrived, Travis the Chimp went on the attack. He overpowered her and began mauling her.

Sandra Herold retrieved a butcher knife from her kitchen and stabbed Travis several times, wrestling the irate chimpanzee off of her friend. Herold then frantically called the Stamford, Connecticut, police.

Herold initially told the dispatcher that the chimp was "eating" Charla Nash. Through Travis' grunts, Herold cries, "The chimp killed my friend!" Herold had hidden behind her vehicle to make the 911 call. "Send the police with a gun. With a gun!"

When asked who was killing her friend, Sandra Herold yells, "My chimpanzee! He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!"

One officer described the scene when he got there. He said that there was a "man down," meaning Charla Nash. "We've got to get this guy out of here. He's got no face."

The chimp would attack the police then, cornering one officer inside his car. When Travis managed to open a door, the officer shot him in the chest. Travis made his way back into the house and died in his cage.

Stamford Police Captain Richard Conklin offered, "Maybe from the medications he was out of sorts." He also mentioned that Travis the Chimp, who is known to most Stamford residents as a friendly and docile creature, may have simply not recognized Charla Nash because she was wearing her hair differently than what the chimp was accustomed to seeing.

But Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center, believes that the Xanax that Sandra Herold gave the chimp may have exacerbated prevailing symptoms (the chimp was believed to be suffering from Lyme Disease) or mental instability. He said the Xanax may have made him more aggressive, having the opposite intended effect. Coccaro noted: "Xanax could have made him worse, if human studies are any indication.""    

From: What Caused the Chimp Attack on Charla Nash?