A chaotic week in Mississippi took a grim turn when a mother was forced to take action to protect her children from an escaped lab monkey.
Jessica Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old chef and mother of five from Heidelberg, Mississippi, said she fired her weapon early Sunday after her 16-year-old son spotted a monkey roaming their backyard. The animal was reportedly one of several Rhesus macaques that escaped after a truck transporting 21 monkeys overturned on Interstate 59 last week.
Ferguson said she had been warned that the monkeys could be dangerous. She contacted local authorities but decided to act when the animal lingered near her home.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Ferguson told the Associated Press.
She fired two shots — the second fatally struck the monkey. Before pulling the trigger, Ferguson said she feared the animal might move toward another yard full of children.
“If it attacked somebody’s kid and I could have stopped it, that would’ve been a lot on me,” she added.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that the animal’s body was recovered and turned over to wildlife authorities. The monkey was one of three still missing after the crash; five had been killed during earlier recovery efforts, while 13 safely reached their destination.
Tulane University clarified that the monkeys were not theirs but confirmed the animals had recently undergone health screenings and were disease-free. Nonetheless, wildlife officials noted that Rhesus macaques are known to be unpredictable and sometimes aggressive.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing.
