The sad, sad news story: Travis, a 200-pound domesticated chimpanzee, a star even of television commercials, was shot dead by police after he went on a rampage and ripped a neighbor’s face up. The chimp’s owner went to great lengths to shut Travis down, she rassled with him, stabbed him, hit him with a shovel. This was a chimpanzee domesticated to the point where he would drive a car, would drink wine, and, indeed, the whole episode began when Travis “took her keys from the kitchen table, unlocked a door and let himself out into the yard.”
There is a metaphor in there somewhere. God-damn if I can suss it out.