A Mississippi mother-of-5 who shot and killed one of the diseased escaped monkeys in her backyard will not face criminal charges.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Jessica Bond Ferguson told the Associated Press.
Residents feared for their safety after a truck transporting 21 research monkeys from Tulane University overturned on Interstate 59 on October 28.
Health officials warned residents that three Rhesus monkeys escaped and they were infected with herpes, COVID-19, and hepatitis C.
Ferguson grabbed her gun when her 16-year-old son said a monkey was sitting on the fence in their backyard on Sunday, Nov. 2.
Ferguson, whose kids range in age from 4 to 16, told the AP, “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
Now she’s receiving death threats from animal lovers.
The local sheriff’s office posted a statement from Tulane University on Facebook, that contradicted the truck driver, who “told local law enforcement that the monkeys were dangerous and posed a threat to humans.”
“The primates in question belong to another entity, and they have not been exposed to any infectious agent,” Tulane’s statement read.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson told PEOPLE he’s frustrated by the university’s lack of transparency.
“I was told by the company hauling them that they carried these diseases, and if they got away from that trailer, they needed to be dispatched,” Johnson said.
