The search for Moe the chimp continues

The Times' Bob Pool gives us the latest on the disappearance of Moe the chimp:

St. James Davis, who rescued the chimp from poachers in the 1960s, sat in a wheelchair and struggled to speak as he told of the hunt taking place above Jungle Exotics, which houses wild animals used in the movie and television industry.

It was Moe's fourth home since authorities removed him from the Davises' West Covina home after he mauled a police officer's hand and bit off a woman's fingertip in two 1998 incidents.

"From the helicopter they did find a couple of water holes up there," Davis said. "They did see three black bears. Moe's quite friendly with dogs and cats, but I don't know if a wolf or a bobcat or something comes up, what's going to happen. Hopefully he'll run away or get in a tree."

Davis and his wife met with reporters at lawyer Gloria Allred's Wilshire Boulevard office. She represented them in their earlier struggle to keep the chimp in their home.

So far the search has been a privately organized affair, although San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies and firefighters have joined in the hunt, according to LaDonna Davis, St. James' wife. A chartered helicopter has flown low over the San Bernardino National Forest in hopes of scaring the chimpanzee into the open.

There have been scattered reports of missing chickens and garden hoses turned on in the vicinity of the hunt -- but no solid evidence that Moe is to blame.

L.A. Unleashed will keep you posted on developments on the case that started last Friday.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Drake]

Very sad that Moe is still lost. Even more sad is that he got lost in the first place which in my opinion is the fault of the Davises as has been all the media on Moe for many years. It was the Davises that didn't follow rules, not Moe....Moe was just being what he is, not what the Davises wanted him to be....a WILD animal. It is their ignorance that got Moe lost this time, it was their failures to care for him the way he should have been cared for from the very begining.
How does the story go? Oh yeah, he was brought back from Tanzania, or was it he was traded for a truck right here in the good ole US of A? I tend to lean towards the later.
I doubt seriously if Moe is still alive out there, his skills of natural instinct would not have been as sharp against his encounters since he had been raised with people as he had been for all his life. Nothing could have prepared him for being thrown to the forest. Had he survived, he would have returned to the facility within the first couple of days at the latest.

Shame shame shame.