Mississippi Mom Shoots Escaped Research Monkey

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes


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One of several rhesus monkeys that escaped after a truck hauling research animals overturned on Interstate 59 in Jasper County was shot and killed Sunday by a homeowner who said she feared for her children’s safety.

Authorities say two monkeys remain unaccounted for following the crash on Oct. 28.

What would you have done? Would you have opened fire on the escaped research monkey?

The homeowner told the Associated Press she saw a monkey in her yard early Sunday and fired from about 60 feet, saying, “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children.”

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed a monkey was found on private property and that state wildlife officials took possession of the animal.

Initial reports from local law enforcement described the animals as aggressive and raised concerns about possible pathogens.

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Tulane University and other institutions later said the monkeys had not been exposed to infectious agents associated with biomedical research shipments.

The overturned truck and the animals’ ownership and destination remain under investigation.

The response was swift across the county. Multiple agencies, including the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and local law enforcement, have been searching, capturing, or euthanizing animals when necessary; several animals were recovered at or near the crash site.

As of the latest updates, two monkeys were still at large.

Mississippi law removes the duty to retreat in many circumstances and recognizes the use of defensive force when a person reasonably fears imminent death or great bodily harm.

That legal framework often becomes the yardstick for assessing the reasonableness of force in cases where a homeowner claims they acted to protect themselves or others.

Whether a particular shooting is justified still depends on what the shooter reasonably believed in the moment and other facts investigators uncover.

The episode quickly divided online reaction. Some commenters argued the homeowner overreacted; others said she acted prudently given a potentially unpredictable wild animal near children.

For many readers, the decisive facts are simple: a primate escaped from a transport truck, it appeared in a family’s yard, and a parent used lethal force to stop what she perceived as a threat.

Reporting so far shows agencies are treating the animals as potentially dangerous until testing and custody questions are resolved.

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  • Heavyguns31 November 8, 2025, 1:02 pm

    I just came here for the comments and they did not disappoint! 🤣🤣. I have no kids, and live in a nice rural lakefront community. Like 15 houses on a lake, most empty now. Only a few of us year rounders. We are surrounded by state forest…so I guess I would have tried to save the poor monkey first but I’d have done so with one of my many 10mm pistols on my hip….I don’t blame the mom one bit. She doesn’t know what it may be carrying and neither do I…she’s got kids, none of us are in a position to Monday morning quarterback her. I just would have tried is all. I have bananas on the counter. But for all we know this coulda been the movie “Outbreak”.

  • Larry November 7, 2025, 1:30 pm

    Personally, I would not have shot the monkey. I would have called 911 and tell them to set a trap. Not sure if they would have done that but I don’t like the unnecessary slaughter of wildlife. The monkey was not acting aggressively.

    • Jerry November 7, 2025, 6:22 pm

      Were you there? Did you witness that the monkey had not expressed aggression? did you see that the monkey had all intentions of being a peaceful unicorn with fluffy clouds and rainbows? If you cannot say yes to all the above, please close your mouth and possibly chop off your fingers so you can not type. If you weren’t there, then you can’t respond factually. You can disregard the fluffy clouds and chopping off your fingers, but don’t respond unless you know the facts. It just makes you look like Bevis.

      • Larry November 7, 2025, 6:57 pm

        No need to be nasty, Butthead. I would shoot the monkey in an instant if it were acting aggressively. I read a few accounts of this incident and none stated an aggressive behavior by the monkey. The mother even stated that she was concerned that if the monkey got away, she was concerned that it could potentially attack someone nearby. She shot it preventatively. A judgment call, and mine would have been different. No fingers are getting cut off, and you weren’t there either.

        • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 8, 2025, 1:03 pm

          well you can go and spank the monkey…….

  • Cornfed November 7, 2025, 11:43 am

    60′ away? Scared for you child? Scared for your life? How the fuck does that bitch think the monkey felt? IT DIDN’T EVEN BELONG IN THE U.S.A.! I can’t wait to watch humanity burn.

    • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 7, 2025, 2:55 pm

      let me guess, de-escalate the situation by reasoning with the monkey then call a social worker in to counsel said monkey then put it in a diversion program imediately after it’s release…..

    • Winston November 7, 2025, 4:00 pm

      Lol. Well, you can go ahead set your overly emotional self alight this afternoon since want the rest of us to burn.

  • LJ November 7, 2025, 10:45 am

    Good shot lady! Screw the tree-hugging PETA freaks that care more about the safety of a dangerous animal than a human life.

  • dacian November 7, 2025, 10:26 am

    Initial and sensational News Reports caused a panic and the Monkey’s were proven to be not exposed to any pathogens. What could have been a simple recovery effort turned into a wholesale slaughter with the Far Right gleefully dancing in the blood of the Monkeys. The real savages were not the Monkeys but as usual the Far Right Stormtroopers, who delight in death and destruction of anyone or anything not of their tribe.

    • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 7, 2025, 1:07 pm

      well if you lefties learned how to drive this wouldn’t be an issue but like everything else screw up and blame some one else!

    • ditpook November 7, 2025, 1:25 pm

      It is not the far right that is responsible for the death of this monkey, but the far left, who, in their immeasureable ignorance and laziness, fail to completely report all significant information and in many cases, with hold, or worse fabricate information to draw readers. Everything that happened under Biden was to create fear and distraction while they raped the treasury and opened our borders. Any time the media creates tension, look beyond and look behind the curtain, there is usually something illegal going on…

      • dacian November 16, 2025, 1:24 pm

        The Far Right ignore the fact that millions of Americans have already and totally lost their healthcare by the Evil, Stingy Republicans who cancelled most of Medicaid and many of its drug subsidy programs such as eye care.

        The Republicans next target is to totally destroy the Affordable Health Care Act which banned pre-existing conditions, insurance caps and permitted children to stay on their parents health care plans a few years longer.

        Meanwhile Herr Drumpf (The Donald) gave away 20 Billion Dollars to Argentina to bail out their corrupt government while ignoring the needs of his own American people.

        Cuts to Social Security are next and openly bragged about by the Republicans while they give away billions of your tax dollars to the super rich in the form of Corporate Subsidies.

        The Republicans have refused to fund educational expenses for students attending College or Technical Schools which are done in all other Industrialized countries even though they are much smaller and less rich than the U.S.

        The Republicans have refused to pass Universal Health Care which all other Civilized Nations have had since 1949. None of those nations have went back to a system of Health Care based on blind greed and profit.

        Herr Drumpf (The Donald) has cancelled billions in foreign medical aid to poor countries which may spawn another pandemic and China is now moving in to help poorer countries and cash in on their mineral wealth hurting the U.S. Industrial base.

        And last but not least but even more evil and dangerous to Democracy Herr Drumpf has plans to run for an Unconstitutional 3rd term and stay in power for the rest of his life.

        It is the Far Right who have prevented common sense European Style gun control measures that have proven far more effective at reducing homicides and mass murders than our complete lack of such laws. And I might add the Europeans have plenty of guns, I have seen them myself cutting through the lies of the Far Right that any form of gun control is just a conspiracy to ban all weapons.

  • Robert November 7, 2025, 9:01 am

    I see a loose monkey in my yard he’ll soon be dead if he sticks around long enough…

  • Cliff Espiritu November 7, 2025, 8:27 am

    “Mississippi law removes the duty to retreat in many circumstances and recognizes the use of defensive force when a person reasonably fears imminent death or great bodily harm.”
    I believe that law is for humans, not monkeys or other animals.
    Stand your ground against a monkey. Sounds crazy.

  • Richard Wayne November 7, 2025, 7:41 am

    Good shoot IMHO.

  • M Davis November 7, 2025, 6:57 am

    Even raising the question that she might should not have shot the monkey is just a sign of how people have been dragged away from common sense. Monkeys like this caused immeasurable harm carrying Ebola in the past. Some say they were infected. Some say not. Dead monkey.,

  • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 5, 2025, 1:57 pm

    i’m guessing anything less than a gun would have turned out bad for the homeowner! the other 2 monkeys, 1 is now mayor of ny the other is gov of virginia.

    • John Ball November 7, 2025, 1:21 pm

      Typical racist MAGA reply.

      • ditpook November 7, 2025, 1:32 pm

        Its not racist to suggest the mayor, with zero experience in any job, is anything more than an organ grinders monkey put in place by billionaires to manipulate our people. When these people run for office, we should ask them all to bend over to reveal how big their hole is and if it will take a billionaires hand fit in there to manipulate what they say and do,

        As to Virginia, the woman stood in complete silence when asked a question about her hyperviolent AG candidate (who is radical LEFT not right and wanted to murder children in front of their parents) , just like the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil speak no evil) which may be before your time.

      • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 7, 2025, 2:49 pm

        wrong site the koolaid website is 2 servers down……..

      • Winston November 7, 2025, 3:56 pm

        You are obviously a typical anti-self defense Biden-Harris bigot. Why are you even reading this website?

    • Brad Faber November 8, 2025, 7:04 pm

      Love it

  • Kane November 4, 2025, 8:00 pm

    I remember a few years ago when a seemingly nice pet chimp named “Travis” ripped the off the face of a poor lady who was friends with the pet owner, and she knew Travis very well. She had to get her face totally reconstructed with cadaver bone, cartilage, skin etc. The moral of the story is, don’t monkey around with unpredictable animals.

    • W November 7, 2025, 10:33 pm

      I remember that exact case. At least when the chimp owner called the police she told them to shoot the chimp. She hadn’t lost her grip on reality, she still valued her friends life over the life of the animal.