YEMASSEE, S.C. — Dozens of monkeys from a medical research company have escaped the Yemassee, South Carolina facility. Officials are trying to round them up and return them to the lab.
A new employee did not fully shut an enclosure, allowing the 43 rhesus macaques to get out, The Associated Press reported.
They escaped at about 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, according to the Yemssee Police Department.
The company, Alpha Genesis, typically takes care of the animals when they escape but the macaques were able to get out of the compound and into the community.
Officials told residents to shut their windows and doors to make sure the monkeys couldn’t find a hiding place.
The local police chief said the animals pose “almost no danger” to the people in the area. They are all “very young females” that are about 6 to 7 pounds each. They have not been used for testing because of their age, CBS News reported.
“They are not infected with any disease whatsoever. They are harmless and a little skittish,” Chief Gregory Alexander said, according to the AP.
The company said employees “have eyes on the primates” and were trying to lure them with food. They’ve also set up traps and are using thermal imaging cameras to track them down.
This isn’t the first time animals escaped from Alpha Genesis. The company was fined $12,600 in 2018 after dozens of primates escaped. It was also found that animals did not have water or had issues with how they were being kept.
In 2014, 26 primates escaped while two years later another 19 got loose.
Animal activists sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have the facility inspected after this latest escape.
“The clear carelessness which allowed these 40 monkeys to escape endangered not only the safety of the animals, but also put the residents of South Carolina at risk,” Michael Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, wrote, according to the AP.
The Post and Courier said that Alpha Genesis is “one of the world’s largest breeders of monkeys for research and medical testing.” It was granted a federal contract last year to run a colony on Morgan Island in South Carolina which was home to about 3,500 rhesus monkeys.