Escaped Monkeys Were Shot on 'Erroneous Information'

A crash on a Mississippi highway led sheriff's deputies to shoot and kill five escaped monkeys after they were wrongly told the animals carried multiple infectious diseases, authorities say. Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson says a truck transporting 21 rhesus monkeys overturned on Interstate 59 when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. The driver mistakenly informed deputies that the monkeys were infected with COVID-19, hepatitis C, and herpes. "I hate it got to the point that it did," Johnson tells the New York Times. "We were told they were highly infectious, dangerous to the public. We reacted on the information that we were given at the time."

The sheriff's office initially said one monkey was still at large, but officials said three monkeys were unaccounted for as of Wednesday afternoon. Searchers wearing protective equipment were seen scouring the rural crash site near Heidelberg, the AP reports. The monkeys were being transported from Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center, which breeds rhesus monkeys for research. "The primates in question belong to another entity and are not infectious," Tulane spokesman Mike Strecker said. "We are actively collaborating with local authorities and will send a team of animal care experts to assist as needed."

"We provide research animals to others," Strecker tells the Mississippi Free Press. "It was erroneous news that they had COVID and herpes and all that." The sequence of events has drawn criticism from animal welfare groups, including PETA, which is calling for necropsies and the release of veterinary records for the monkeys. They argue that the public has a right to know the risks involved with transporting research animals across the country.

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Johnson tells the Times that specialists from Tulane have set up traps to catch the monkeys. He says his deputies have "no intentions" of killing the remaining escaped monkeys. The Clarion Ledger reports that experts say that Mississippi's climate is similar to that of areas where the rhesus monkeys live in the wild and that they will likely be able to find ample food, though they may not recognize the dangers from predators like bobcats and alligators.