Free Republic

<p>BOSTON – Charla Nash never served in the military. She was horribly disfigured, not in combat, but in a 2009 attack by a rampaging chimpanzee. The Pentagon, though, is watching her recovery closely.</p> <p>The U.S. military paid for Nash's full face transplant in 2011 and is underwriting her follow-up treatment at a combined cost estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the hope that some of the things it learns can help young, seriously disfigured soldiers returning from war.</p>

Owners of horses and other domestic animals must try to prevent their animals from causing foreseeable injuries, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday in a decision that avoided the larger issue of whether horses are inherently vicious while siding with a family whose child was bitten by one. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 6-0 to uphold an Appellate Court decision that said a horse belongs to “a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.” But four of the justices said that the question of whether an animal is naturally dangerous must be considered individually by lower courts. […]...

Nash, who required a face transplant following the 2009 rampage, says the state is liable for $150 million because it knew the chimp posed a threat. Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that would overturn a state commissioner’s ruling that denied Nash the right to sue. A Connecticut woman mauled by a pet chimpanzee in 2009 made a rare public apperance before politicians Friday, pleading for the right to sue the state for $150 million. Charla Nash, who is blind and underwent a complete face transplant following the gruesome rampage by Travis the chimp, points to a memo by the...