A monkey that escaped from an overturned truck has been fatally shot by Mississippi mom

One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday morning by a homeowner who says he fears for the safety of his children.

Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday morning by her 16-year-old son, who said he thought he saw a monkey running around in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and cell phone and went outside where she saw the monkey about 18 meters away.

Bond said she and other residents were warned about diseases carried by the escaped monkeys, so she fired the gun.

“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond, who has five children ranging in age from four to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot him and he was just standing there and I shot him again and he backed away and then he fell.”

The Jasper County Sheriff's Office confirmed on social media that a homeowner found one of the monkeys on his property Sunday morning, but said the office had no further details. The monkey was taken into possession by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the sheriff's office said.

Mississippi authorities have not disclosed the company transporting the monkeys, where the monkeys were going or who owned them.

The rhesus macaques were housed at Tulane University's National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, which regularly supplies primates to research organizations, according to the university. Tulane University said in a statement that the monkeys are not owned by the university and are not being transported by the university.

A truck carrying monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities said most of the 21 monkeys were killed. The sheriff's department said Tulane animal experts examined the trailer and determined that three monkeys had escaped.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles (100 miles) from the state capital of Jackson.

Monkeys need to be 'neutralized', sheriff says

Rhesus macaques typically weigh around seven kilograms and are one of the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video taken after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass next to the interstate, where wooden boxes labeled “live animals” were crushed and scattered.

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said Tulane officials said the monkeys were not contagious, despite initial reports from passengers on the truck warning that the monkeys were dangerous and carried various diseases. However, Johnson said the monkeys still need to be “neutralized” due to their aggressive nature.

The monkeys were recently tested and found to be free of pathogens, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.

About 10 years ago, three rhesus macaques at a breeding colony then called the Tulane National Primate Research Center were euthanized after a “biosafety failure,” federal inspectors wrote in a 2015 report. The breach resulted in at least one employee not following biosecurity and infection control procedures, he said.

The facility has since made changes to its procedures and retrained staff, according to a report from the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Rhesus macaques are “known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The agency's conservation officers worked with sheriff's deputies to search for the animals, the report said.

The search comes about a year after 43 rhesus monkeys escaped from a South Carolina farm where they are bred for medical research because a staff member did not fully lock the enclosure. Employees at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, set traps to catch them.