Kim Kardashian apologises for 'insensitive' ape pictures

26 Feb 2009 

Reality TV star KIM KARDASHIAN has issued an apology for posting "insensitive" pictures of her family posing with their new pet chimpanzee in the same week an American woman was brutally mauled by a crazed ape.
 
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star posed with her mother, Kris, sisters Khloe and Kourtney, and three-year-old chimp Suzy for the snap, which was posted on her website on Friday (20Feb09).
 
The siblings rented the ape for a week as a prank on their mum, but their laughs were short lived when critics lashed out at Kim, who posted the snaps days after a 14-year-old, 200-pound (90.91 kilogramme) chimp left 55-year-old Connecticut woman Charla Nash near dead on 16 February (09) following its escape from the home where he had been raised since infancy.
 
Kardashian says, "I understand my timing was not appropriate and it was insensitive of me. What happened to the woman that was attacked by the chimpanzee was devastating. In no way did I mean to insult or offend anyone by posting these pictures."
 
Nash remains in critical but stable condition in a Cleveland, Ohio clinic.
 
The incident prompted Washington lawmakers to pass a bill on Tuesday (24Feb09) banning the sale of chimps, gorillas, monkeys and orangutans across state lines.