Well that’s not good.
A truck carrying lab monkeys from Tulane University in New Orleans crashed in Jasper County, Mississippi earlier today, resulting in several of the creatures getting free and setting off a manhunt for the primates.
The sheriff’s department sent out an alert to the community earlier in the day, warning that the monkeys are aggressive to humans and require PPE to handle. And in a later update, it was reported that all but one of the monkeys had been “destroyed,” and that an animal disposal company had been contacted to assist with handling the euthanized monkeys.
Tulane University (which happens to be my alma mater…Roll Wave) disputed the initial report from the sheriff that the monkeys were infectious, with spokesperson Michael Strecker confirming that they had been in contact with authorities in Mississippi:
“Non-human primates at the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center are provided to other research organizations to advance scientific discovery. The primates in question belong to another entity and are not infectious.
We are actively collaborating with local authorities and will send a team of animal care experts to assist as needed.”
And the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office later reported that their initial warning about the monkeys being infectious came from conversations with the driver:
“Tulane has released the statement below. The driver of the truck told local law enforcement that the monkeys were dangerous and posed a threat to humans. We took the the appropriate actions after being given that information from the person transporting the monkeys. He also stated that you had wear PPE equipment to handle the monkeys.”
The rhesus monkeys weigh about 40 lbs each, and it’s reported that the truck was carrying 21 in total during the wreck. Six monkeys escaped, with the other 15 remaining caged after the crash. Tulane is reportedly sending a team to collect the surviving monkeys on Wednesday.
According to Sheriff Randy Johnson, the animal on the loose ran off into a wooded area after the accident:
“The monkey that got away actually crossed interstate, went out into a wooded area.”
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks is assisting local law enforcement.
Rhesus monkeys are used extensively in medical research due to their widespread availability and similarity to humans when it comes to their anatomy and physiology. Several medical breakthroughs have come as a result of research using rhesus monkeys, including the development of the rabies, smallpox and polio vaccines, as well as the creation of medicines to manage HIV and AIDS.
The monkeys exist in large numbers, and are able to exist in a wide range of habitats.
And now, there’s one more on the loose in Mississippi, that may or may not have herpes.
A Tequila-Drinking Monkey Once Escaped From A Nashville Strip Club
There are plenty of wild stories that have come out of Music City over the years.
Of course most of those stories have to do with the interesting characters in the music industry, from the outlaws like Waylon Jennings flushing cocaine during a DEA raid to George Jones grabbing fellow country star Porter Wagoner by the junk in the bathroom of the Grand Ole Opry.
And while downtown Nashville has turned into a strip of neon bars emblazoned with the names of some of country music’s biggest stars, before the 1990s Broadway was much different than the bachelorette destination it is today.
In the ’90s, the lower Broadway that’s become a tourist destination today was a sketchy part of the city that many avoided, filled with strip clubs and seedy bars, while the iconic Ryman Auditorium sat boarded up and unused after the Opry moved to its new home in the 1970s.
And right beside Hume-Fogg High School, just steps away from where Bridgestone Arena sits as the centerpiece of downtown today, was Nashville’s largest strip club, the Classic Cat.
Even though it’s been closed for decades, the Classic Cat still has quite the lore about it today, with the stories surrounding the gentleman’s club becoming the stuff of legends in Nashville.
And one of the best was when a monkey named Pete escaped from the strip club.
It was a story I first heard while listening to the Nashville Demystified podcast, which has done quite the deep dive into the notorious club.
According to the podcast, the incident with the monkey happened in the late 1970s, when a stripper at the Classic Cat used a monkey named Pete as part of her act. (I don’t want to know).
Well apparently Pete wasn’t the only wildlife in the show, and the same dancer also had a boa constrictor. And not surprisingly, Pete and the boa constrictor didn’t always get along – and at one point, the snake spooked the monkey and Pete ended up escaping from the strip club.
The stripper who used the monkey in her act actually gave an interview to The Tennessean about the monkey’s escape, explaining that he pulled off his leash:
He was later found by the highway, with the working theory being that Pete had somehow ended up in someone’s car after making a run for it, and when the driver realized that there was a monkey in their car, they ditched the dancing monkey on the side of the road.
But all’s well that ends well (I guess?) because Pete ended up back at “work” the next day.
And you thought Broadway was a zoo now…
