Bodycam Footage of Mississippi Monkey Crash—and What It Reveals: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
November 17, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Science Advisor on Primate Experimentation Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the release of video made from bodycam footage taken by law enforcement at the scene of the Oct. 28 crash of a truck hauling rhesus macaques from Tulane National Primate Research Center. Eight escaped in Jasper County, Mississippi, where seven were shot by police and civilians, while another roamed for eight days before being reportedly tranquilized:

Tulane is to blame for this tragedy. Along with the tragedy of disoriented, frightened monkeys being shot, some more than once—one officer states, “I hit that f****er twice”—the bodycam video released by PETA reveals that Tulane provided no clarity about pathogens, no guidance on containing the animals alive, and nothing to prevent the scene from devolving into a killing field. It appears Tulane chose self-protection over responsibility, and in its public statement, even denied that the monkeys carried any disease risk. Tulane left officers to confront the crisis blindly, telling a law enforcement officer at the scene that the monkeys carried disease and endangered public health. The monkeys who were gunned down escaped what would have been years of confinement, pain, misery, and deprivation, conditions long documented inside U.S primate laboratories. At Tulane’s federally funded primate facility, where serious pathogen lapses have repeatedly emerged and no breakthroughs justify the risks, the only responsible course is to shut it down.

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.