One of those monkeys He escaped last week After a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway, she was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for her children’s safety.
Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son, who said he thought he saw a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and cellphone, and went outside, where she saw the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.
Bond Ferguson said she and other residents were warned that the escaped monkeys were carrying diseases, so she fired her gun.
“She did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ages 4 to 16, told the Associated Press. “I shot him and he stood there, and then I shot again, and he backed away and that’s when he fell.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner found one of the monkeys in his home Sunday morning, but said the office did not have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks captured the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.
Before Bond Ferguson walked out the door, she called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she expressed concern that if the monkey escaped, it would threaten children in another house.
“If he attacked someone’s child and I could have stopped him, that would be a huge burden on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they’re running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”
The rhesus monkeys were housed at the National Center for Biomedical Research at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university and were not transferred by the university.
A truck carrying monkeys overturned Tuesday on Highway 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tolin. Five others were killed during the chase Three remain at large Before Sunday.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol said it was investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the state capital, Jackson.
Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds (7.2 kg) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. A video recorded after the accident showed monkeys crawling through the tall grass next to the highway, where wooden boxes labeled “Live Animals” were strewn and scattered.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said Tulane officials were told the monkeys were not contagious, despite initial reports from truck occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harbored various diseases. However, Johnson said the monkeys still need to be “neutered” due to their aggressive nature.
Tulin said in a statement on Wednesday that the monkeys had recently undergone tests confirming that they were free of pathogens.
Rhesus macaques are “known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. She said the agency’s conservation workers were working with police officials in searching for the animals.
The research comes after about a year 43 rhesus macaques escaped from the South Carolina complex that raises them for medical research because an employee did not fully seal the enclosure. Employees from Alpha Genesis facility In Yemassee, South Carolina, they set traps to catch them.