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 a 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 3-year-old chimp Suzy for the snap, which was posted on her Web site on Friday. (Click here for the photos.)

The siblings rented the chimp for a week as a prank on their mom, but their laughs were short lived when critics lashed out at Kim, who posted the snaps days after a 14-year-old, 200-pound chimp left 55-year-old Connecticut woman Charla Nash near dead on February 16.

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 banning the sale of chimps, gorillas, monkeys and orangutans across state lines.

Source: SFGate