Woman mauled by chimp appears on TV show

Chicago: A woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee revealed her heavily disfigured face on Oprah Winfrey's television show, saying she is blind and has to eat through a straw, but isn't angry.

"I don't even think about it," Charla Nash said on Wednesday's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. "And there's no time for that anyways because I need to heal, you know, not look backwards."

Winfrey removed Nash's hat and veil to reveal her face, which was swollen and damaged beyond recognition. She had a large scar near the bottom of her face and a large piece of skin where her nose had been.

The February 16 attack occurred when the 200-pound animal's owner, Sandra Herold, asked Nash, her friend and employee, to help lure the animal back into her house in Stamford, Connecticut.

The chimpanzee ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids.

Police shot and killed the animal. Nash has been hospitalised since. She remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

No recollection

Nash said she didn't remember anything from the attack and doesn't want to.

"I want to get healthy," she said. "I don't want to wake up with nightmares."

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Nash said she repeatedly warned Herold that the primate was dangerous and could hurt someone.

Nash said she saw the chimpanzee throw large objects around his cage, including a desk and 55-gallon plastic drum, flash his teeth and pound the bars so violently his hands would bleed and the cage had to be rewelded.

"They had to weld the cage because he was starting to break out from hitting it so much," Nash said.

Another time Herold told workers at her house they had to leave, Nash said.

Nash said she was afraid of Travis, who was typically locked in his cage when she saw him. Nash said she told Herold eight or 10 times he was dangerous.

"I always told her you have to get rid of him, he's going to hurt somebody someday. He's too dangerous," Nash said. "You can't control him, and he's going to hurt somebody."

Nash, who occasionally fed Travis oatmeal, said she told Herold that Travis did not have enough room to run around.