Chimp Attack Survivor Struggles With Recovery

Two weeks after he was brutally attacked by chimps, St. James Davis remains in critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center, where doctors have described his struggle to survive as “minute by minute.”

Davis, 62, who remains unconscious, has undergone numerous surgeries since the attack March 3, said his wife, LaDonna Davis. During one 12-hour operation immediately after the mauling, Davis underwent a tracheotomy, and his nose and lips were reattached. He underwent more facial surgery Monday.

But a lung infection is complicating his recovery. Doctors also worry about inflammation of the brain.

“They [doctors] have been very honest with me,” LaDonna Davis said in a recent interview. “They tell me right now it’s minute by minute.”

Every day starts the same, with an early morning call to a trauma nurse to check on her husband’s condition, Davis said. She then makes the 40-minute drive from her West Covina home to the hospital, where she confers with doctors.

The rest of the time, she spends sitting with St. James, doing her best to comfort her husband of 35 years.

“I lean over and talk into his ear and tell him he better get better and that I want to go dancing with him,” she said.

The day of the attack was supposed to be a happy occasion for the couple. The Davises drove to Animal Haven Ranch in Kern County to host a birthday party for Moe, a 39-year-old chimpanzee they had rescued from African poachers and cared for at their home since the 1960s.

Authorities removed the chimp from the Davises’ home and placed him at Animal Haven in 1999 after he bit a West Covina police officer and chomped on a woman’s finger.

Since then, the Davises visited Moe, whom they treated more like their son than a wild animal, at least three times a month.

On this visit, the Davises sat next to Moe’s outdoor cage so they could talk to him and feed him cake through the fence.

“I cut them each [Moe and St. James] a piece of cake and then was going to cut myself a piece,” LaDonna Davis said. “Moe was giggling and clapping.”

Suddenly, two other adult male chimps appeared, startling the couple.

“When I turned around, I saw one of the males out of the corner of my eye,” she said. “We made eye contact, and he charged.”

As the ape approached her, Davis said, she turned around and placed her arm around St. James. One of the chimps hit her hard from behind, knocking the couple over.

“As we were falling, the chimp came back around and bit my finger off,” LaDonna Davis said. “There was no time to run. There was no time to do anything.”

Davis said St. James pushed her behind a serving table next to Moe’s cage and took the brunt of the attack.

One of the chimps bit St. James’ head first and then his arms. The second began gnawing at his foot.

“It was pandemonium,” Davis said. “I was screaming to the top of my lungs for help.”

Virginia Brauer, the owner of the sanctuary, grabbed a water hose and sprayed the chimpanzees in an effort to stop them, Davis said.

“That didn’t do anything,” she said. “All it did was get us all wet.”

At that point, Brauer summoned her son-in-law, Mark Carruthers, 32, who grabbed a .45-caliber revolver and shot one of the chimps. The other ape then dragged St. James about 30 feet toward a parking area before being shot by Carruthers.

Davis said St. James lost all of his fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek and lips, and part of his buttocks. The terrifying attack lasted 5 to 7 minutes, said Davis, who has no health insurance and has not spoken to Brauer since the incident.

Authorities are trying to determine how the two male chimps escaped from their outdoor cages. Two female chimps also got loose but were detained by Brauer and did not participate in the attack. Moe remained locked up the whole time.

In an earlier interview with The Times, Davis said she considered the chimpanzees’ escape “an honest mistake.”

But Gloria Allred, the Davises’ attorney, said the family had not ruled out legal action against the sanctuary’s owners.

“We’ll see where the investigation takes us,” she said.

Despite the attack, Davis said the incident has not diminished her love of chimpanzees or her belief that they can be gentle animals in captivity.

“In the wild, it varies because they [chimpanzees] are doing their own survival,” she said. “In captivity, it changes a great deal. Things are provided to them, so they don’t have to be grabby or aggressive.”

Male chimps usually stand about 4 to 5 1/2 feet tall and weigh 100 to 120 pounds, experts say. Their upper body strength is said to be at least five times that of the average human.

“Chimps are like people. You have a good mainstream of people, and then you have people who are bad,” Davis said. “Most chimps wouldn’t have done this.... Moe wouldn’t have done this.”

Although she hopes to have Moe returned to her, Davis said, her immediate priority is to care for her husband.

“I told the doctors,” she said, “I don’t care how I get him back, as long as they make sure he lives.”