Chimp Vs Children, Judie Harrison

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 3/3/2009

"It was unconditional love between a chimp and a human," says Judie Harrison, speaking about the bond she once shared with a chimp named Mikey.

And her two children say she loved the chimp more than she did them. "She never told me she loved me, after she got the chimps she never hugged me," says Jessica.

The vicious attack on an innocent woman by Travis the chimp in Connecticut last February has put the spotlight on people who raise chimps. Travis shared a bizarre bond with owner Sandra Herold, who treated him like a son, just like Judie Harrison did with Mikey.

She bought him for $45,000 when he was eight months old. Shortly afterwards, she bought another chimp named Louie to keep him company.

One of Judie's home videos shows Mikey in the snow, bundled up just like a human child.

Mikey was a star chimpanzee. His appearance on the set of WBAL-TV in Baltimore in 2005 stopped the show. He tossed around papers, jumped on a desk, and ran amok in the studio.

He earned $200,000 a year for his role in dozens of TV commercials and appeared with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg. He even played poker at INSIDE EDITION with our own April Woodard.

But Harrison's children Jessica and Jason say her obsession with the chimps cost her their love.

"I always felt as if the chimps meant more to her than the children, [the chimps] were her first priority because they made her money," Jessica tells INSIDE EDITION.

"When people ask me about my mother, I just tell them I don't have a mother," Jason says.

"My son, he was insanely jealous," Judie tells INSIDE EDITION.

Her daughter became so estranged from her mother, she moved out of the house. She says Judie has never shown any interest in seeing her 2-year-old granddaughter.

"I feel regret not having the life I should have had," says a tearful Jessica.

"I have always been one that the animals always come first," Judie says.

But even Judie came to realize she'd taken on more than she could handle as the chimps grew older and stronger. "They're unpredictable and when they go, they go like that," says Judie, snapping her fingers.

One day, Mikey actually reached into her mouth and pulled out a tooth! "I look at Mikey and he has my tooth in his hand! Root and all," remembers Judie.

The final straw came when Mikey lunged at a man on the set of a TV commercial. He was no longer a cute, adorable chimp.

Judie says, "If you've ever, ever been on the other side of a leash of an 80-pound chimp, it's like pulling 200 pounds. They don't want to listen to you, so that was it for me.'"

Even though it broke her heart, she decided to donate her chimps to a zoo in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Harrison's house is now in foreclosure because of the mountains of debt she says she ran up raising her two primate sons.

Incredibly, she has no regrets, even if she no longer speaks to her son and daughter: "I still love my chimps to the point where I cry over them every day, whereas the loss of my children, I don't cry over them every day. I'm sorry, but I just don't," Judie says.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 3/3/2009

Judie Harrison says she had a bond of unconditional love with her chimp Mikey.

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Judie's children Jessica and Jason say their mother always loved the chimps more than them.

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Judie says she put the animals first.

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Judie treated the two chimps like sons, here bundling up Mikey like a human child.

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Mikey once came to play poker with INSIDE EDITION's April Woodard, as well as making several commercials and TV appearances.

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Judie Harrison's home is now in foreclosure because of the debt that piled up as she raised the chimps. Source