South Carolina police assist in corralling escaped lab monkeys

Authorities in Yemassee, S.C. on noon Thursday closed in on roughly 43 Macaque rhesus monkeys, police said. The monkeys—all young females weighing only about 6-7 pounds each—escaped an Alpha Genesis facility in the area on Wednesday. Authorities believed they were hiding in a wooded area around the facility and urged residents not to approach the area. The monkeys are skittish and extraneous noises could hinder their capture, police explained. Staff from the test facility attempted to lure them back into captivity with food.

Do these monkeys carry diseases? The monkeys were too young at the time of their escape for Alpha Genesis to have used them in research. They don’t carry any infectious diseases, the police said.

How’d they escape? A caretaker failed to secure a door to their enclosure, an Alpha Genesis executive said in an interview earlier this week, according to a statement by the Yemassee Police Department.

Dig deeper: Read John Dawson’s report in WORLD Magazine about the number breakdown about monkey research in the United States.