Woman recalls shooting escaped Mississippi monkey

Two of the monkeys who escaped from a truck that overturned on a southeast Mississippi highway last week were shot and killed, while one remains at large, according to authorities and media reports.

Rhesus monkeys escaped on Tuesday, October 28 The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department posted this last week after a truck picking them up from the National Biomedical Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans overturned on Interstate 59 in Mississippi.

Jessica Bond Ferguson, 35, told USA TODAY that she shot one of the monkeys in Heidelberg, Mississippi, on Sunday morning, Nov. 2. He was half asleep that morning when his son told him the family dogs were barking seemingly at nothing; There were no passersby, nor were there any garbage trucks that normally sent them barking.

Bond Ferguson told USA TODAY on Nov. 4 that his son later said he looked out the window and saw something chasing his small dog across the yard. He told her it was a monkey.

After calling the police to send someone away, she was worried the monkey would escape and hurt someone.

Bond Ferguson, who has five children aged between 3 and 16, said, “I don’t want him to reach my child or anyone else’s child and harm them, attack them, kill them, or infect them.” “There’s no telling what they can actually do to you.”

A second monkey was fatally shot When someone spotted him crossing the highway about a mile from the original crash site on Monday, November 3, he notified several media outlets, including: Associated Press And NOLA.com reported.

‘You could see his teeth’

When Bond Ferguson’s son mentioned the monkey in the yard on November 2, he went out and called the police, pulling his vehicle out of the driveway and onto the road to make it easier for authorities to find his home when they arrived. Authorities told him not to approach the animal while he waited.

He saw the monkey jump from the garbage bin to the railing next to his neighbor’s house.

“He was opening his mouth or something,” said Bond Ferguson, describing the monkey’s movements. “Like you could see his teeth or something.”

As the monkey approached Bond Ferguson’s porch, he decided to shoot the animal. His first shot was from too far away so he missed. He then tried again, this time shooting from the front of his truck.

“My hands were shaking,” he said, noting that he wasn’t sure how the monkey would react when he tried to shoot the animal a second time. “Is he going to jump down and run to me? I was panicking.”

His second bullet hit the monkey, causing the animal to fall back onto the porch. According to Bond Ferguson, a local game warden rescued the animal.

He said the situation was frustrating. No authorities checked on his family or offered to disinfect the area, so he said he did it himself.

Bond Ferguson recalled hearing something “strange” in the bushes while he was outside alone the night before the shooting. He said it almost sounded like monkeys communicating or playing with each other. After all, knowing there’s a monkey in your yard is a scary thought, he said.

“My five children probably wouldn’t have a mother,” he said. “They might wake up Sunday morning to a different story… not having a mother.”

A monkey is still free

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said in a press release on Nov. 4 that eight of the 21 monkeys transported when the truck overturned escaped. Of the eight people who escaped, five were rescued at the scene of the accident, two died, and one is still at large.

Tulane University told USA TODAY on Nov. 3 that the school did not own the monkeys and that a separate institution from the university was transporting the monkeys when the truck overturned.

research company PreLabs LLC He confirmed to AP and WDAM 7 that he is the owner of the monkeys involved. The organization said the monkeys were not infected with Covid-19, hepatitis or herpes as previously reported.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said: in a Facebook post on Nov. 2. He said a homeowner found one of the monkeys on their property, possibly referring to Bond Ferguson’s encounter, but gave no other details.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash.

Confusion over health risks posed by escaped monkeys

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department made a post. A series of updates on the day of the highway incident On October 28.

The sheriff’s department incorrectly stated that 40-pound monkeys carried hepatitis C, herpes and Covid-19, and then shared Approval from Tulane University Monkeys are not contagious. The sheriff’s department added that it received inaccurate information from the truck driver about health risks.

Bond Ferguson said news that the truck carrying the monkeys had overturned spread quickly in Heidelberg, a small town about 150 kilometers southeast of Jackson. He said that after the truck overturned, phones were ringing with messages that “infected monkeys” were on the loose.

Bond Ferguson, who has two dogs, a cat and a rabbit, said that the monkey he shot had a tattoo of letters and numbers. When asked what he would like to see going forward, he would like to see authorities find the freed monkey. He also wants to see animals treated better.

He shared the shooting incident on social media and learned then that previous reports that the monkeys were contagious were not true.

Bond Ferguson said that if the monkeys were not contagious, he did not understand why the driver did not collect the animals or why authorities or the monkeys’ owners could not somehow track them down.

“It’s like they left it up to us to take care of it,” he said.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks asks residents who see the remaining monkey to call 1-800-237-6278.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. He is from Norfolk, Virginia – 757. Email him at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: Monkey escaping from overturned truck on Mississippi highway was shot