A tense standoff in Heidelberg, Mississippi, USA, ended with a mother of five killing one of the aggressive rhesus monkeys that had been loose since a truck crash last week, citing the need to protect her children.
Heidelberg resident Jessica Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old mother of five, acted swiftly on Sunday morning to eliminate a threat she perceived to her family’s safety. The area had been on high alert after a truck carrying 21 caged rhesus monkeys from Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center overturned on Interstate 59 on Tuesday, October 27.
The incident began when her 16-year-old son ran inside, alerting her to a monkey in their yard. Despite calling the police, Bond Ferguson decided not to wait for animal control or law enforcement to arrive. She grabbed her gun and stepped outside, spotting the monkey about 60 feet from her home.
Fearing the monkey would escape and pose a danger elsewhere, particularly to children, Bond Ferguson took action. She emphasized that her choice was driven by a mother’s instinct:
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson told the Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” she added.
The rhesus monkeys are sought after as research subjects due to their genetic similarities to humans, but the species is known to exhibit aggressive behavior, according to the National Library of Medicine. Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had previously stated the escaped monkeys needed to be “neutralized” due to this aggressive nature.
This fear was amplified by initial, but later disproved, reports that the monkeys were carrying dangerous diseases. Tulane University clarified that while the animals came from their research center (but were not owned or transported by them), the monkeys had undergone recent health screenings and were not infectious.
However, this key clarification arrived only days after the crash, leaving residents like Bond Ferguson deeply concerned.
Out of the 21 monkeys involved in the crash, 13 were recovered safely, five died during the search, and the shooting accounts for one of the three animals that had remained loose until Sunday. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks has since taken control of the monkey’s remains.
