**Homeowner Shoots Escaped Monkey in Mississippi Over Safety Fears**
HEIDELBERG, Miss. — One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi roadway was shot and killed early Sunday by a homeowner who said she feared for the safety of her children.
Jessica Bond Ferguson recounted that she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son, who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She quickly got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and cellphone, and stepped outside, spotting the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.
Bond explained that she and other residents had been warned about the diseases carried by the escaped monkeys, prompting her to fire her gun. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, 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.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office did not have further details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, according to the sheriff’s office.
The rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement, Tulane University clarified that the monkeys do not belong to the university and that they were not being transported by the university at the time of the accident.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/escaped-monkey-shot-killed-heidelberg-mississippi-jessica-bond-ferguson-says-she-feared-childrens-safety/18105434/