One of many monkeys that escaped final week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi roadway was shot and killed early Sunday by a lady who says she feared for the protection of her youngsters.
Jessica Bond Ferguson mentioned she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who mentioned he thought he had seen a monkey operating within the yard outdoors their house close to Heidelberg, Mississippi. She acquired out mattress, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outdoors the place she noticed the monkey about 60 toes away.
Bond Ferguson mentioned she and different residents had been warned about illnesses that the escaped monkeys carried, so she fired her gun.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has 5 youngsters ranging in age from 4 to 16, informed The Related Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
This photograph supplied by Scotty Ray Boyd exhibits an escaped monkey sitting within the grass Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Heidelberg, Miss. (Scotty Ray Boyd through AP)
Scotty Ray Boyd / AP
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Workplace confirmed in a social media put up {that a} home-owner had discovered one of many monkeys on their property Sunday morning, however mentioned the workplace didn’t have any particulars. The Mississippi Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
The Rhesus monkeys had been housed on the Tulane College Nationwide Biomedical Analysis Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely gives primates to scientific analysis organizations, based on the college. In a press release final week, Tulane mentioned the monkeys don’t belong to the college, they usually weren’t being transported by the college.
Rhesus macaque primates have brown fur with pink faces and ears. They’ve close-cropped hair on their heads, which accentuates their very expressive faces. They had been imported to america within the Nineteen Seventies for biomedical analysis in laboratories, based on the New England Primate Conservancy. Rhesus macaques are “bold, extremely curious and adventurous monkeys,” and the species is “highly adaptable to coexisting alongside humans,” the conservancy says.
A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities have mentioned a lot of the 21 monkeys had been killed. The sheriff’s division has mentioned animal specialists from Tulane examined the trailer and had decided three monkeys had escaped.
The Mississippi Freeway Patrol has mentioned it was investigating the reason for the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.
Rhesus monkeys usually weigh about 16 kilos and are among the many most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash confirmed monkeys crawling via tall grass beside the interstate, the place picket crates labeled “live animals” had been crumpled and strewn about.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had mentioned Tulane officers reported the monkeys weren’t infectious, regardless of preliminary experiences by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys had been harmful and harboring varied illnesses. Nonetheless, Johnson mentioned the monkeys nonetheless wanted to be “neutralized” due to their aggressive nature.
“The primates in question were not carrying any diseases and had received recent checkups confirming that they were pathogen-free,” Tulane spokesperson Andrew Yawn mentioned in one other assertion on Wednesday.
About 10 years in the past, three Rhesus macaques within the breeding colony of what was then referred to as the Tulane Nationwide Primate Analysis Heart had been euthanized after a “biosecurity breach,” federal inspectors wrote in a 2015 report. The breach concerned no less than one employees member failing to stick to biosafety and an infection management procedures, it mentioned.
The power made modifications in its procedures and retrained employees after that occurred, based on the report from the U.S. Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service.
Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” based on the Mississippi Division of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It mentioned the company’s conservation staff had been working with sheriff’s officers within the seek for the animals.
Extra from CBS Information
