Only one monkey that escaped from a truck crash last week is still on the loose after another was shot and killed.
It was initially reported that the monkeys were carrying herpes and Covid as they were transported to a medical research lab.
14 have now been killed despite the lab they escaped from insisting the primates aren’t infectious.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said on Tuesday he was contacted by a person with the transport company who recovered the monkey after a civilian shot it.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks confirmed Tuesday in a news release that one monkey was still unaccounted for after two of the escaped monkeys were ‘recovered deceased.’
Officials have warned that people should not approach the Rhesus monkeys, saying they are known to be aggressive.
Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi.
She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.
Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.
‘I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,’ Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, said.
‘I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.’
(Picture: Jessica Bond Ferguson)
Prefabs, which describes itself on its website as a biomedical research support organisation, said that a vehicle transporting its non-human primates was involved in the crash and the animals were being lawfully transported to a licensed research facility.
It stressed that the monkeys weren’t carrying any known diseases, but asked the public not to approach them as they were likely frightened and disoriented.
‘We are cooperating with authorities and reviewing all safety procedures to ensure the continued well-being of both the animals and the community,’ PreLabs said.
The escape is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and the processes that allow key details of what happened to be kept from the public.