A Mississippi homeowner on Sunday killed one of three research monkeys that had escaped from their overturned transport truck, fearing they carried diseases that could harm one of her five children.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” aged 4 to 16, Jessica Bond Ferguson told The Associated Press.
The mother’s 16-year-old son alerted her early Sunday that he had seen a monkey running in the yard. That got her out of bed and outside, toting her firearm and her cellphone— and sure enough, there was a monkey about 60 feet away, she told the AP. She and other residents had heard about the escapees and had been told they carried infectious diseases, she said.
“I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up, and that’s when he fell,” Bond Ferguson said.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said only that a homeowner had found a monkey and handed it over to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
AP Photo/Sophie Bates
People wearing protective clothing search along a highway in Heidelberg, Miss., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, near the site of a truck which overturned Tuesday, that was carrying research monkeys. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
The Rhesus macaques escaped last Tuesday when the 56-year-old Maryland man hauling 21 primates in a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado pickup ran off Interstate 59 into the grassy median area just north of Heidelberg, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said. He was taking them from the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center, about 40 miles north of New Orleans, to a Florida research center.
Neither the driver nor his 34-year-old passenger was hurt, but many of the monkeys were killed, and eight escaped. The driver told sheriff’s deputies they were “aggressive to humans” and infected with hepatitis C, herpes and COVID, Sheriff Randy Johnson said at the time. He told residents to call 911 if they saw one because they “pose potential health threats,” and deputies and state wildlife officials hunted down and killed all but three of the escapees.
Scotty Ray Boyd via AP
An escaped monkey sits in the grass on Tuesday in Heidelberg, Miss. (Scotty Ray Boyd via AP)
Tulane University later said the monkeys had “not been exposed to any infectious agent” and explained that it routinely houses primates and sends them to scientific research organizations. Tulane also said it did not own and had not been transporting the monkeys in question, but that the 13 who survived were en route to their original destination.
With News Wire Services
