The recent escape of multiple research monkeys from a transport truck overturned on a Mississippi interstate serves as a recent illustration of the clandestine animal research sector and the mechanisms that permit crucial information about events to be withheld from public view.
TL;DR
- Research monkeys escaped after a transport truck overturned on a Mississippi interstate, with some still at large.
- Key details about the company, destination, and owner of the Rhesus macaques remain undisclosed by Mississippi officials.
- Tulane University stated confidentiality agreements prevent revealing information about the research animals' owner and destination.
- This incident follows similar monkey escapes from research facilities in South Carolina and Pennsylvania in recent years.
Since Tuesday's crash along Interstate 59 in a rural area, three monkeys have been at large, scattering wooden crates marked “live monkeys” into the roadside grass. Search teams, equipped with masks, face shields, and protective gear, have since combed adjacent fields and forests for the escaped primates. The local sheriff reported that five of the 21 Rhesus macaques aboard were killed during the search, though the circumstances remain unknown.
Key details remain shrouded in secrecy
Mississippi officials haven't revealed the name of the company that transported the monkeys, their destination, or their owner. Tulane University in New Orleans confirmed the monkeys were kept at its National Biomedical Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, but stated it doesn't own them and won't disclose the owner.
According to an early report from the sheriff, the monkeys were identified as “aggressive” and were carriers of illnesses like herpes, which further complicated matters. Tulane subsequently stated the monkeys were pathogen-free, though the specific research purpose for these animals remains unknown.
Animal advocates find the questions surrounding the Mississippi crash and the mystery of why the animals were traveling through the South to be remarkable.
“When a truck carrying 21 monkeys crashes on a public highway, the community has a right to know who owned those animals, where they were being sent, and what diseases they may have been exposed to and harbored simply by being caught up in the primate experimentation industry,” said Lisa Jones-Engel, senior science adviser on primate experimentation with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“It is highly unusual — and deeply troubling — that Tulane refuses to identify its partner in this shipment,” Jones-Engel added.
Authorities confirmed that the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, which was transporting monkeys, was being operated by a 54-year-old male from Cascade, Maryland, at the time it veered off the highway and entered the grassy median, according to a statement from The Mississippi Highway Patrol to The Associated Press. Neither the driver nor his passenger, a 34-year-old individual residing in Thurmont, Maryland, sustained any injuries.
Confidentiality is built into contracts, blocking information
Tulane University informed the AP in a statement that transporting research animals usually necessitates legally enforceable agreements preventing involved parties from revealing details. The New Orleans-based institution explained this measure is for the animals' welfare and to safeguard confidential data.
“To the best of Tulane’s knowledge, the 13 recovered animals remain in the possession of their owner and are en route to their original destination,” the statement said.
The incident has prompted diverse responses, spanning from conspiracy notions of a governmental scheme to harm individuals to earnest objections from those against animal testing.
“How incredibly sad and wrong,” Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said of the crash.
“I’ve never met a taxpayer that wants their hard-earned dollars paying for animal abuse nor who supports it,” the Georgia congresswoman said in a post on the social platform X. “This needs to end!”
Tulane center has ties to more than 155 institutions worldwide
The Covington center at Tulane has secured $35 million each year from The National Institutes of Health. According to an Oct. 9 news release from the school, the center collaborates with approximately 500 researchers from over 155 institutions worldwide. Since 1964, the NIH has provided funding for the center, and federal grants have constituted a substantial portion of the institution's revenue.
This past July, a ribbon-cutting event was held by a portion of the research center's 350 staff members to celebrate the inauguration of a new 10,000-square-foot office space and an updated laboratory on-site. University representatives disclosed this autumn that the facility's designation was altered from The Tulane National Primate Research Center to the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center, signifying its expanded scope of work.
Research monkeys have escaped before in South Carolina, Pennsylvania
The Mississippi incident is among at least three significant monkey escapes in the U.S. During the last four years.
Last November, 43 Rhesus macaques escaped escaped from a South Carolina facility where they are bred for medical research because an enclosure was not completely secured. Staff from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, deployed traps to recapture them. Nevertheless, some remained in the woods for two months that winter, enduring an unusual snowstorm. By the end of January, the last four escapees were recaptured had been recaptured after being enticed back into captivity with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Authorities reported that in January 2022, several cynomolgus macaque monkeys escaped a truck carrying approximately 100 of the animals crashed with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway. The monkeys had been en route to a quarantine site, the location of which was not revealed, following their arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Mauritius, a country situated in the Indian Ocean, according to officials. A representative from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that all the animals were located within roughly 24 hours, although three were put down for reasons not disclosed.