[derrida]

Makes sense to me. Take out the face and you remove access to sensory data. Although Frans de Waal has a darker view on the matter:

"You can not have cruelty in creatures that don’t have empathy. Ironically enough, for example a shark can do a lot of damage, it can hurt you very terribly, but I don’t, don’t think a shark can be cruel, it doesn’t have the brains to understand what the effect is of its actions. Now chimpanzees do have that kind of understanding. Chimpanzees have empathy and sympathy and so as a result they can also inflict pain on purpose I think."

A male chimp is probably the worst possible pet of all great apes. Bonobos are horny and utterly peaceful. (Though I guess for a pet the constant sexual presentation would get a bit awkward) Gorillas are hulking but docile, silverbacks will fight over harems but it's mostly ritualistic and deaths are rare, though they will kill the offspring of competing males. Male orangutans are rapists and make terrible pets as well. Gibbons are speed freaks that only want to fling poop and do george of the jungle shit all day long.

But chimps are just fucked up cannibals that wage war on competing social groups, eat theirs and others' young, and fashion weapons to hunt adorable lesser primates like bushbabies.

NYtimes quote: "Ms. Nash’s injuries were so horrific — Ms. Herold told a 911 dispatcher that her pet was eating Ms. Nash — that the hospital was providing counseling to the staff members who treated her. Mr. Orstad said some members of the team that initially treated Ms. Nash had already sought counseling."