one of the monkeys escaped last week A woman shot and killed when a truck overturned on a Mississippi road early Sunday said she feared for her children’s safety.
Jessica Bond ferguson She was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son, who said he thought he saw a monkey running in the yard outside his home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her gun and cellphone, walked outside and saw the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.
Bond said she and other residents were warned that the escaped monkeys were carrying diseases, so she opened fire.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond, a mother of five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot him and he was standing there, I shot him again and he took a step back and that’s when he fell.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner spotted a monkey on his property Sunday morning, but said the office did not have any details. The monkey was taken into custody by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the Sheriff’s Office said.
this rhesus monkey Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which regularly provides Scientific research institutionsAccording to the university. Tulane University said in a statement last week that the monkeys do not belong to the university and were not transported by the university.
On Tuesday, a truck carrying monkeys overturned on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities said most of the 21 monkeys had been killed. The Sheriff’s Department said animal experts from Tulane University examined the trailer and determined Three monkeys escaped.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the state capital of Jackson.
Rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh about 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms), are among the most medically studied animals on Earth. Video recorded after the incident showed monkeys crawling in tall grass beside the interstate and wooden boxes labeled “live animals” crushed and scattered.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said Tulane University officials reported that the monkeys were not contagious, despite initial reports from passengers in the truck that the monkeys were dangerous and carried a variety of diseases. Still, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “eradicated” because of their aggressive nature.
Tulane University said in a statement Wednesday that the monkeys were recently examined and confirmed to be free of the pathogen.
About 10 years ago, three rhesus monkeys at the Tulane National Primate Research Center breeding colony were euthanized due to a “biosecurity breach,” federal inspectors wrote in a 2015 report. The breach involved at least one staff member failing to follow biosecurity and infection control procedures, the report said.
According to the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service report, the agency changed procedures and retrained employees after the incident.
Rhesus monkeys are “known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The agency’s conservation officers are said to be working with sheriff’s officials to find the animals.
The search took place about a year later 43 rhesus monkeys escape from a South Carolina factory that raised them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock the enclosure. employees from Alpha Genesis Facility In Yemassee, South Carolina, traps were set to catch them.