PETA Demands Release of Veterinary Records for Escaped Monkeys in Mississippi

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Science Advisor for Primate Campaigns Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the hunt for three escaped rhesus macaques who fled an overturned truck taking them from Tulane National Primate Research Center. Some escaped monkeys were killed, likely shot with rifles, while three remained missing Wednesday:

PETA calls on authorities to demand full necropsies and veterinary records for the monkeys killed in the crash in Mississippi and to make the results public, so communities for once will know the truth about the risks of sending terrified animals to crisscross U.S. highways in secret shipments. Don’t let anyone fool you, the escape of diseased monkeys caught up in the experimentation industry into unprotected and populated areas is not isolated, it is a predictable “accident.” Monkeys recently scrambled to freedom in Pennsylvania—from another truck crash—and South Carolina. Right now, three frightened monkeys are still on the loose in Jasper County, and the public is completely in the dark about the danger. Monkey prisons such as the Tulane National Primate Research Center, which is rife with documented disease outbreaks, including a bioterrorism-level bacterium carried by monkeys that can be shed into the environment, will bear the responsibility for sparking the next pandemic. This is also a tragedy for these monkeys, who cannot escape panic and fear even in their brief moments of freedom. Importing and trucking monkeys around the country for pointless experiments is a public health hazard and a moral disgrace, and it should be stopped immediately.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.