PENDLETON, Ore. — An Umatilla County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a pet chimpanzee Sunday after it attacked its longtime owner’s daughter, requiring her hospitalization.
Authorities responded at around 8 a.m. to a report of a large male chimpanzee that was out of its cage in a Pendelton, Oregon, home and had bitten a 50-year-old woman multiple times, KPTV reported.
The victim, who has not been identified, was hospitalized for treatment of several bites to her torso, arms and legs, Lt. Sterrin Ward with the sheriff’s office told The Oregonian.
According to KPTV, a sheriff’s deputy - at the request of the chimp’s owner - shot and killed the primate in order to reach the injured woman who had become trapped in a basement bedroom.
The owner, Tamara Brogoitti, had owned the chimpanzee named “Buck” for about 17 years, Ward told the newspaper.
Oregon outlawed owning chimpanzees in 2010, but authorized anyone who owned one of the primates prior to the new law’s passage to keep the animal for the remainder of its life, the outlet reported.