A terrified Mississippi mom gunned down one of the escaped lab monkeys that had been wreaking havoc since a highway crash last week—after spotting the creature lurking in her backyard at dawn.
Jessica Bond Ferguson was alerted by her 16 year old son early Sunday morning about a monkey running around their yard near Heidelberg, Mississippi.
She quickly grabbed her firearm and cellphone and spotted the monkey about 60 feet away. Due to warnings about diseases potentially carried by the escaped monkeys, she decided to shoot.
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Despite initial reports suggesting the monkeys were carrying hepatitis, experts later dismissed these claims. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, a mother of five children aged between 4 and 16, told The Associated Press.
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“I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
Irish Star report: The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed via social media that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but didn’t provide further details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Rhesus monkeys were residents of the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, a facility known for supplying primates to scientific research organizations, as per the university’s statement. The university clarified last week that the monkeys were not their property and they were not responsible for their transportation.
A truck ferrying the monkeys met with an accident on Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities reported that the majority of the 21 monkeys perished in the initial crash, but a few survived.
However, experts from Tulane who inspected the trailer concluded that three monkeys had managed to escape.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol is currently investigating the cause of the crash, which took place approximately 100 miles from Jackson, the state capital.
Rhesus monkeys, typically weighing around 16 pounds, are among the most medically researched animals globally. Footage captured post-crash showed monkeys navigating through tall grass beside the interstate, amid the wreckage of wooden crates labeled “live animals”.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson stated that despite the truck occupants’ initial warnings about the monkeys being dangerous and carrying various diseases, Tulane officials confirmed the monkeys were not infectious. However, Johnson emphasized that due to their aggressive nature, the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized”.
The monkeys had recently undergone checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, according to a statement released by Tulane on Wednesday.
Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said. The agency reported that its conservation workers were collaborating with sheriff’s officials in efforts to locate the animals.
