Truck with laboratory macaques overturns and panic breaks out over the fleeing monkeys, but are they really infected?

In Mississippi there were hours of concern after a truck loaded with primates destined for scientific research overturned along Interstate 59, near Heidelberg. The accident resulted in the escape of several rhesus monkeys, known for their genetic similarity to humans and used in the biomedical field.

Immediately after the incident, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office issued the alert, describing the animals as “very aggressive” and potentially infected with Covid, hepatitis C and herpes. A communication that generated panic among residents. Authorities urged anyone who spots the fugitive animal to keep their distance and contact 911 immediately.

However, Tulane University, to which the primates were linked, strongly denied the health alarm. In a statement, the university specified that the animals “were not infectious and did not represent any biological risk.” He also said the animals were not in their custody or property, adding that a team of animal care experts had been sent to the scene to assist local authorities.

Three monkeys are still on the run

The recovery operations led to the capture and unfortunately the suppression of almost all the primates. Initially, the sheriff’s department announced that a specimen was still on the run in the woods of Mississippi. Then, however, a subsequent update corrected the information: three records are currently untraceable.

The authorities, supported by rangers from the Wildlife and Fisheries Department, are searching the area. A video released on social media shows one of the monkeys moving uncertainly next to the destroyed truck, with the wooden crates overturned on the side of the road. It is not clear how many animals were on the vehicle or who owned the cargo, but it is known that the macaques came from the National Biomedical Research Center at Tulane University, in New Orleans.

How far can human cruelty go?

A dramatic story that highlights a profound contradiction: animals already exploited for scientific research, forced to live in captivity and subjected to stress and experimentation, are now treated as threats rather than sentient beings. The authorities reacted with a promptness that appears more dictated by fear than compassion, going so far as to “destroy” some specimens in doubt that they could be infected, when in reality Tulane University itself has denied any health risk.

It is disturbing how, in just a few minutes, the image of these animals went from research tools to potential biological dangers, without anyone wondering what they felt or what life they had led up to that moment. Rhesus monkeys, known for their intelligence and complex social relationships, are often used in medical and psychological tests, but rarely considered for what they are: sensitive creatures, capable of suffering and feeling fear.

This story should push us to reflect more widely on the moral boundaries of animal testing. Is it acceptable to sacrifice the well-being of living beings in the name of scientific progress? And to what extent can we consider the use of animals “necessary” when technology offers increasingly advanced and sustainable alternatives?

The way these monkeys were treated after the accident – killed as a precaution, isolated, labeled as a biohazard – tells a lot about how human society tends to reduce the animal to an object, to “laboratory material”, even when science itself begins to recognize its individuality.

Ultimately, these poor monkeys did nothing other than what any living being would do: run away as soon as the opportunity arose. Yet, instead of seeing them as a symbol of freedom or silenced suffering, we immediately considered them “out of control”. Perhaps the real danger was not them, but our inability to look at them with empathy.

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