Pet chimpanzee shot dead after attacking owner’s daughter

Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a rampaging chimpanzee on a farm in Oregon on Sunday after the animal attacked its owners and forced them to take shelter in their basement.

The incident happened Sunday morning at a horse farm in Pendleton, Ore., according to the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office. Owner Tamera Brogoitti called 911 and urged police to kill her 200-pound pet chimpanzee, Buck, after it bit her 50-year-old daughter several times.

“I’ve locked myself in the basement with her,” Brogoitti said on the call, referring to her daughter. “I can’t get out to get my gun,” she added, before asking police to kill the chimp.

“You’re gonna have to do a headshot.”

Brogoitti, 68, said she’d never seen Buck act like this, and she urged police not to underestimate the animal.

“Send more than one (deputy) because the ape — if the ape gets a drop on him, he’s gone too,” she said. “He has got to be put down.”

The operator on the call can be heard asking Brogoitti if she is applying pressure to her daughter’s most grievous wound.

“I’m trying to guard her from a 200-pound ape, so I can’t really put pressure on it, ma’am,” Brogoitti replies.

Deputies showed up at the scene to find the 200-pound chimp roaming the grounds outside of his cage, the sheriff’s office told NBC Right Now.

They complied with Brogoitti’s request and shot the animal once in the head, according to police spokesperson Lt. Sterrin Ward.

“They were able to dispatch him and they were able to get medics and assistance into the house,” Ward said.

Brogoitti’s daughter was taken to hospital and treated for severe bite wounds to her torso, arms and legs, officials said. She is expected to make a full recovery.

The chimpanzee lived with Brogoitti for 17 years prior to the attack, local broadcaster KOIN reports.

The farm previously served as a horse rescue until 2019 when the animals were removed by the state. The chimp was not taken away at that time.

Exotic animals such as chimpanzees are prohibited under state law, though the law includes a grandfather clause for owners with permits dating back to before 2010.

It’s unclear if Brogoitti had a permit for Buck.

It’s not the first time a pet chimpanzee has attacked a human. Perhaps the most well-known incident occurred in 2009, when a male chimp mauled its owner’s friend in Connecticut. The victim, Charla Nash, lost her hands and face in the attack.

Nash later received an extremely rare face transplant after surviving the attack.