Monkeys Don’t Kill People; Xanax Does
Which is more responsible for the isolated incident of a lady being mauled by a chimp...this pigmy marmoset, or the drug the 200 lb ape was taking, that is known to cause violent aggression?
You’ve probably heard, in tedious detail, about the chimp, Travis, who ripped the face off some old lady.
What’s creepy about this story, more than it sounding like people are keeping pets that can kill them (as can horses and dogs), is the way power-hungry politicians are exploiting it, contextually lying, in order to pass unconstitutional laws we’d otherwise never tolerate.
The facts of the story are that a 200 lb chimp, who’d been raised as if a child by some woman who strikes me as emotionally akin to a “cat lady“, was secretly given the drug Xanax in his tea. Yes, she fed him tea. A few minutes later, he freaked out and bolted outside. When the lady’s friend, who apparently had a new hairstyle rendering her a “stranger”, showed up to help, Travis attacked her.
You may have noticed a detail that’s not normally mentioned, above. Travis was given a mood-altering drug, of which he was unaware. Xanax is a drug that is used to control people’s minds, but it has a well-documented “paradoxical” side effect of sometimes causing people to fly into insane rages, becoming violent and aggressive.
In fact, experts say that Xanax may very well have been the cause of the rampage. Why did journalists mostly ignore this detail? Who knows…perhaps it’s because they’re so likely to be under mood control drugs, themselves. /shrug
Now even people who know they’re taking that drug, and that it may cause them to become criminally aggressive, can be driven to act nuts by it…imagine some animal that doesn’t even know there’s a drug involved (probably doesn’t even understand the concept), who is being drugged.
I wouldn’t want to be around a collie or retriever who’d been driven mad by drugs, nor riding a horse in such a state.
So what’s the response of Big Brotherment to this incident?
Why, to ban the sale of ALL PRIMATES, of course.
Yes, that’s right; they are passing a ban on the sale of 1 inch long mouse lemurs, and all other primates, because some idiot prescribed a drug drug that can cause violent rages, to a 200 lb chimp.
If we were actually going to try to pass some over-reaching law to retroactively prevent this laughably rare, even isolated incident, surely it’d be something like “you can’t give huge apes drugs that might make them insane”, or even a ban on mood-control drugs entirely, which would be a loss ONLY insofar as prohibition is bad.
The truth is, of course, that one of the most vile things politicians do is try to pass laws based on single incidents. The already-suicidal chick who killed herself after someone else’s mom mocked her online has spawned a host of vile laws that are already being extended to speech outside their original intent, for example. Or the crazy Brady Law, that effectively banned only weapons that were not using in the shooting of its namesake. Or the ridiculous “security” measures set up after 9-11, that do zero to actually prevent future terror attacks. How, precisely, will you hijack a jumbo jet with nail clippers and a four ounce sippy cup?
Of course such laws are almost never passed by people who care about the incident at hand. They’re dishonest people who are actually attempting to forward some agenda of their own. In the case of Representative Blumenauer, author of the primate ban, he’s apparently one of those “pets are slaves” PETA nut-jobs, who has openly said that reptiles are next on his list of ban victims.
What we need, really, is fewer laws, not more of them. Banning the sale of lemurs so small that they’re are in danger of being eaten by mice, in response to the drugging of a man-sized ape, seems like one of those “Romans got brain damage from lead-lined aquaducts, and then things all went to hell” moments.
Representative Blumenauer appears to think these baby monkeys should be banned as a choking hazard.
24 Comments »
Leave a comment
About
This site has its origins before the word “Blog” existed. Back then its owner, Kaz, was simply thought of as having a website that published socio-political articles with regularity…But the only real difference was that the RSS/XML protocals were not yet used this way.
The website was known as Site of the Sentient, a reference to the famous Words of the Sentient, that Kaz had been editing for years previously.
When some random portal site hijacked the domain siteofthesentient.com, it was a dark time for the human knowledge quest. Fortunately, But Now You Know is striving to take up the slack, and even has some revamped versions of the original articles, for example Conscription, is it Slavery, and How to Get Out of Jury Duty, and be a hero instead of a bad citizen.
Kaz is a writer, graphic artist, and supplements his income by being a hardcore senior web developer.
Along with this blog, you can track his efforts with the dedicated facebook page here.
Speaking of tracking:
You can follow But Now You Know here, on Twitter
And you can follow But Now You Know, via our Facebook Page, here.
Share This Article
Words of the Sentient- Tolkien, on Government
- Criminals Are Never Disarmed — Robert Heinlein
- Power Attracts the Corrupt — Frank Herbert
- Under Democracy — H.L. Mencken
- Guard Your Enemies from Oppression —> Thomas Paine
- Your Right to Not Support Evil
- Global Warming Shamanism
- The Squeaky Wheel…May Be Foolish
- Disarming the Victims
- The Inconvenience of Too Much Liberty
Recent Comments
kazvorpal on Monkeys Don’t Kill Peopl… Jenny Brewer on Monkeys Don’t Kill Peopl… Pater Rolf Hermann L… on It’s Not Even an Effing… Upholding Integrity… on Why the End Does Not Justify t… Alf from Albany on Why Workers Dislike Union… - Pithy Pontifications
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
But Now You Know 
My only comment is that Travis was a sexually mature male chimp (ape not monkey) with no heirachy or troop order especially after the only other male (the husband died). This was an accident waiting to happen. Xanax had not been prescribed and I find little research on its effects on 200 lb chimps exposed to alcohol and refined sugar. This is what can happen when treating an animal like a surrogate child. Poor travis.
I agree, except “had not been prescribed” implies that a prescription would change anything. Doctors who prescribe mood control drugs are demonstrably no more competent to decide than anyone else. Almost all such drugs are overprescribed by 900%. The whole gatekeeper system of prescriptions is worse than meaningless; it’s harmful.
Look at the absurd overprescription of antibiotics to millions of people who have a viral or fungal infection.
And the automatic prescription of analgesics to people, even preemptively when pain is not present, as if they facilitated healing, when in fact they impair healing.
I pay a quick visit everyday a few sites and websites
to read content, except this blog presents feature based articles.
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide
credit and sources back to your website? My blog is in the
exact same niche as yours and my visitors would genuinely
benefit from a lot of the information you present here.
Please let me know if this alright with you. Many thanks!
Certainly, information must be free.
ok I understand that Xanax mught have played a role in this monkeys violent episodes but on the otherside I don’t think it is fair to any wild animal to be sold or kept as a child when thy are not one most ppl get rid of them as soon as they strt to grw to big or have behavior issues they cant control anymore. As much as I would love to own a lil monkey {that would stay lil} I wouldn’t for there sake bc its not right, If you want to help them as a species hat would be nice fight to save them from poacers etc, do u think all of them get treatd good like the one in conn. I don’t so. most of them sped thre lives in a cage when they get out of control to big etc or kept in a cage
YOU believe it’s not right, but you have no legitimate power to violate the choices of people who disagree with you.
And at some point dogs, cats, hamsters, and the like were all “wild animals”, to. “Wild” animals can be bred to be domesticated, like those silver Russian foxes.
Monkeys are awesome! I like the part about “The person thinks these baby monkeys are a choking hazard” And was that /shrug a reference to the WoW emote, or just /shrug?
WoW ripped off the slash emote, like everything else about it, from earlier, more creative services.
Slash emotes go back at least to the Internet Relay Chat, started in 1988…and even that was based on multi-user chat on multi-line bulletin boards, which may have had slash emotes, as well.
With havin so much written content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My website has a lot of unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my permission. Do you know any methods to help prevent content from being ripped off? I’d certainly appreciate it.
You are speaking of something you know nothing about. Xanax is drug that works on gabba which has a calming effect on the brain. if a monkey went into a rage within a few minutes i can assure you that the drug would not have taken effect yet. The monkey would not have had time to absorb the drug.
I have taken this drug for over 20 years with no side effects, to calm episodes of panic attacks. Without this drug i would be going to the emergency room every week. It does not cause aggresssion, if anything again it is calming. Why dont you drop a xanax and see how it makes you feel before writing an article like this. This article just makes you sound ignorant, i think you should analyse the facts before you feel that your opinion is worthy of our time.A monkey being caged for a huge amount of time can cause anxiety, cortisol release and aggression. Usually all medications have risks , but we take them as the benefits normally outweigh the risks. Why dont you write an article about how smoking kills, or the effects of genetically modified food is causing malnourishment. Or at least talk on topic based on facts not on heresay
Your ignorance of the growing body of incidents of Xanax causing violent behavior and outbursts is your own problem.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/xanax2.htm
http://www.stopshrinks.org/reading_room/drugs/dark_side_2.htm
http://www.power-surge.com/educate/medication/xanax.htm
http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65
http://www.infowars.com/antidepressant-drugs-causing-epidemic-of-mania/
“I have taken this drug for over 20 years with no side effects, to calm episodes of panic attacks. Without this drug i would be going to the emergency room every week.”
What you need is probably NOT dependency upon an addictive drug as a crutch, but to actually outgrow whatever damaged coping mechanism is causing the panic attacks in the first place.
In the highly likely event that your panic attacks are not biochemical, but psychological, the drug is actually depriving you of the opportunity to grow out of them.
“Why dont you drop a xanax and see how it makes you feel before writing an article like this.”
It takes a seriously screwed-up person to seriously suggest that someone “drop a Xanax” who does not have a neurochemical problem that could be countered in no other way. Mood-control drugs are a malignant crutch, in any other case but the former, or at least as a very temporary measure for helping someone learn to outgrow the most extreme kinds of psychological disorder.
“Usually all medications have risks , but we take them as the benefits normally outweigh the risks.”
No, you take symptom suppressants because you’re lazy and irresponsible. They often do more harm than good…not only mood-control drugs like Xanax and Prozac, but also drugs that suppress flu and cold symptoms, that actually end up prolonging the illness because they’re suppressing the body’s means of fighting the virus.
Well stated. Right on! Calling it a malignant crutch is spot on. Have a family member who was destroyed by this drug. Vicious, and manic. Can’t have her around because you don’t know “who’s” coming over. Disturbing to say the least.
Have a relative on Xanax for over 20 years. paranoid and delusional now…that drug CAN cause aggression, not to all who take it, but there are the dreaded paradoxical side effects – well documented. Xanax is NOT for everyone.
Mood control drugs, in general, are harmful for psychological problems, because they just hide symptoms, while making the cause of the symptoms get worse, as the body compensates for the drug.
how much r they
Awesome Blog. I add this Post to my bookmarks.
I find myself coming to your blog more and more often to the point where my visits are almost daily now!
I just book marked your blog on Digg and StumbleUpon.I enjoy reading your commentaries.
I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.
Monkeys are wild animals and belong in the jungle. That is where they are the most happiest. People can’t handle wild animals, what do they do with them most of the time? They are left in a cage all day.
From what I see the selling of exotic wild animals is just a way of making money, at the expense of some poor animal.
Wow, that’s a nice set of meaningless generalization.
How, precisely, do you know that ALL primates are left alone in cages all day, alone and miserable?
You don’t.
Aside from animals having no natural rights, and the Federal government having no Constitutional power to regulate the owning of them in any way, it’s absolutely silly to try to ban ALL, because of an objection that only applies to SOME. That is as true of your “they’re all left in cages” argument as it is of their insane “they all rip the faces off of old ladies” argument.
I lOve mOnkEys!
…OK…