{"id":104999,"date":"2025-10-29T23:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/104999\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:24:12","slug":"escaped-monkeys-destroyed-after-mississippi-police-are-mistakenly-told-theyre-a-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/104999\/","title":{"rendered":"Escaped monkeys ‘destroyed’ after Mississippi police are mistakenly told they’re a danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of monkeys were “destroyed” after they got loose Tuesday morning and Mississippi law enforcement officers were mistakenly told they were dangerous.<\/p>\n

The rhesus monkeys were being transported when the truck carrying them crashed in Jasper County, Mississippi, about 75 miles east of Jackson, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The vehicle’s driver told deputies that the primates posed a threat to humans; that they were aggressive; that they had hepatitis C, herpes and Covid; and that they would require personal protective equipment to handle, the sheriff’s department said on Facebook<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver of the truck told local law enforcement that the monkeys were dangerous and posed a threat to humans,\u201d it said. \u201cWe took the appropriate actions after being given that information from the person transporting the monkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department said the monkeys were being hauled from Tulane University. In a post on X<\/a>, the school said that its National Biological Research Center provides primates to other research organizations to “advance science” and that the monkeys in question were not infectious. <\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC News Tuesday night, the university said the monkeys belonged to a third party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primates in question belong to another entity, and they have not been exposed to any infectious agent,\u201d it said. \u201cThe non-human primates were NOT being transported by Tulane, but we are actively collaborating with local authorities and are sending a team of animal care experts to assist.\u201d <\/p>\n

The sheriff’s department did not specify how many monkeys, which it said weighed about 40 pounds each, were on board the truck.<\/p>\n

The department initially said one of the animals was still missing but in an update clarified that, after officials from Tulane “were able to get inside the truck and get a correct count,” they determined three monkeys remain on the loose. <\/p>\n

\"OnA truck carrying rhesus monkeys associated with Tulane University wrecked Tuesday in Mississippi. Jasper County Sheriff’s Department<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s department warned the public about the crash on Interstate 59, which runs diagonally across the south and eastern side of Jasper County, shortly after 9:30 a.m. It told people to avoid the monkeys because they posed “potential health threats and are aggressive.”<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s department said it contacted an animal disposal firm to take the carcasses at the scene. It also said Tulane would send a team to pick up the monkeys that remained caged and did not escape.<\/p>\n

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dennis Romero<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.<\/p>\n

Emmy Beck-Aden contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of monkeys were “destroyed” after they got loose Tuesday morning and Mississippi law enforcement officers were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-104999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}