A pastor shot and killed a rhesus macaque in Mississippi this week, one of three research monkeys that escaped from a truck crash last week.
George Barnett, 45, told NBC News that his wife spotted one of the macaques in a tree near a highway exit ramp in Jasper County, where the crash occurred on Oct. 28.
He grabbed his rifle and shot the macaque dead, telling NBC, “As soon as I saw it, the only thing I thought about was, ‘What if this thing attacks one of those people that I grew up with, or my children?’”
Similar concerns prompted Jessica Bond Ferguson, who lives in Heidelberg, where the crash occurred, to kill another of the escaped macaques the day prior.
She told The Associated Press that, concerned about potential diseases carried by the monkeys, “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children. I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
The monkeys were being transported from the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center at the time of the crash.
The New Orleans school stressed in the aftermath of the crash that the monkeys didn’t belong to Tulane University. PreLabs LLC, a biomedical research company based in Oak Park, Illinois, according to LinkedIn, has claimed ownership of the monkeys, according to Hattiesburg’s WDAM-TV.
Both the company and Tulane also asserted that, contrary to the claims of the trucker initially transporting the monkeys, the rhesus macaques were not carriers of herpes, hepatitis or COVID-19.
“This is documented by the supplier’s veterinary health certificate as well as confirmed by third-party testing and diagnostic services,” PreLabs told WDAM.
The macaques got loose after a truck, heading from the Tulane research center to another destination, overturned on U.S. Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 macaques on board, 13 did not escape, five were caught after the crash near the crash site and three got loose.
Only one of the monkeys remains free, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said Tuesday.
PreLabs told WDAM, “PreLabs is working closely with authorities to ensure the safe recovery of the animals while remaining diligent regarding public safety.”
