Silence from CDC After Mississippi Monkeys Escape is Unconscionable: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
October 31, 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 absence of response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while three escaped rhesus macaques fleeing an overturned truck from Tulane National Primate Research Center are still being hunted by state and local authorities days after their escape:

Three escaped rhesus macaques are still being hunted in Jasper County, and the only information the public has received about the potential for the spread of a nasty disease has come from Tulane National Primate Research Center, a facility with a lengthy record of federal violations and a vested interest in downplaying risk. Where is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Once monkeys leave import quarantine, the CDC claims they are no longer its responsibility—yet these animals remain part of a trade that has repeatedly introduced dangerous pathogens into the U.S. This inaction leaves the Mississippi public at the mercy of Tulane, which claims there is no reason to worry, even while their own personnel wear head-to-toe protective gear while trying to recapture the remaining monkeys, and refuse to reveal their ownership, destination, intended use, or disease status. The CDC’s silence in Mississippi is reckless. In a letter sent today, PETA urges the agency to protect communities from the dangers posed by the primate trade and the entrenched pathogens in primate facilities, including Tulane.

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.