Jessica Bond Ferguson, a mom of five and a professional chef in Heidelberg, Mississippi, woke up Sunday morning to her teenage son's urgent warning: there was a monkey in the yard. As it turns out, this monkey was one of several rhesus macaques that had escaped the week before, after a truck carrying them (en route to a biomedical research facility) overturned on the highway. Some monkeys were rescued on the spot — but others made a run for freedom.
Concerned for her kids' safety and after repeatedly hearing community warnings that these monkeys might carry diseases, Ferguson grabbed her gun and cellphone. When she saw the monkey standing about 60 feet away, she fired — and the monkey fell. She later told the Associated Press, "I did what any other mother would do to protect her children." Ferguson explained she didn't want to risk the monkey hurting anyone else, and acted before it could move on down the road.
Local officials backed up her account: the Jasper County Sheriff's Office confirmed a homeowner found one of the escapees and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks secured the animal. Tulane University, where the monkeys were originally housed, assured the public the survivors were not infectious, but authorities had still urged residents to be on their guard— rhesus macaques are famously aggressive.
Previously:
• Tulane assures us the escaped lab monkey is definitely disease-free
