On March 3, 2005, a joyful birthday visit to Animal Haven Ranch wildlife sanctuary near Bakersfield, California, descended into unimaginable terror for St. James and LaDonna Davis.
The couple had driven to the Kern County facility to celebrate the 39th birthday of Moe, the chimpanzee they had raised as their son since 1967. What began as a loving family reunion ended in a savage mauling by two escaped young male chimps, leaving both victims with life-altering injuries.
St. James Davis, a 62-year-old former NASCAR driver, and his wife LaDonna had treated Moe like their own child for nearly 30 years after LaDonna’s uterine cancer prevented them from having biological children.
They dressed him in clothes, included him in family meals, and even took him on vacations. Moe lived with them in West Covina until he bit several people, prompting authorities to seize him and relocate him to the sanctuary.
Despite a prolonged legal battle to bring Moe home, the Davises visited him regularly.
On this day, they arrived with a raspberry-filled birthday cake, candy hearts, and chocolate milk.
Moe clapped with delight as they prepared to share the treats inside his enclosure, a moment that should have been filled with affection.
Unseen by the couple, two adolescent male chimpanzees named Buddy, aged 16, and Ollie, aged 13, had broken free from their locked cages elsewhere on the property.
The animals, housed at the sanctuary but not part of Moe’s group, suddenly charged toward the Davises without warning.
The attack erupted in seconds. Buddy and Ollie launched a coordinated assault, one targeting St. James’s face while the other went for his foot.
LaDonna tried to intervene, but one chimp bit off her left thumb in a single vicious snap.
St. James bore the brunt of the fury.
The chimps tore into him mercilessly, destroying most of his fingers on both hands, mangling his left foot, and ripping away large portions of his buttocks, both testicles, and part of his torso.
They gouged out his right eye, chewed off his nose, lips, and cheek, and even tore a chunk from his skull.
LaDonna fought desperately to protect her husband, screaming for help as the chimps dragged St. James along a walkway.
The assault lasted several agonizing minutes, with the animals showing no signs of stopping their frenzied attack.
Sanctuary staff sprang into action.
Mark Carruthers, the owner’s son-in-law, grabbed a .45 caliber revolver and fatally shot Buddy in the head. He then pursued Ollie, who was still mauling St. James, and shot him dead as well.
Moe remained uninvolved throughout the chaos.
St. James was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, undergoing a tracheotomy and emergency surgeries to reattach what could be saved of his face.
He spent months in a medically induced coma and required over 60 operations in the following years. LaDonna’s thumb injury, while serious, paled in comparison to her husband’s devastating wounds.
The couple’s ordeal highlighted the dangers of keeping wild primates as pets and the risks at even well-intentioned sanctuaries.
Though permanently disfigured with a prosthetic eye and slits where his nose once was, St. James survived. The Davises continued to love Moe, who lived out his days at the sanctuary until his own escape years later.
Their story remains a haunting reminder of nature’s raw power.