Police are searching for a total of 43 monkeys that escaped from a research facility in South Carolina on Wednesday night.
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said on social media that the animals escaped from Alpha Genesis, a company that breeds thousands of monkeys in Yemassee for research.
Police said traps have been set up around the area.
In an update later that evening, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said the Yemassee Police Department was assisting with the search. Officers equipped with thermal imaging cameras are helping locate the animals.
“Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes,” the Yemassee Police Department said in a statement, urging anyone who spots one of the escaped animals to not engage with them, but instead call 911.
Law enforcement said multiple officers are on the case, collaborating with Alpha Genesis personnel to resolve this situation.
It remains currently unclear how the monkeys were able to break loose. Alpha Genesis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NTD.
Police said the escaped monkeys are from the rhesus macaque breed. Alpha Genesis’ website says it works with macaque and capuchin monkeys.
Back in 2016, the company saw a similar incident when 19 primates escaped but were recaptured a few hours later.
Alpha Genesis, which also has operations in Europe, boasts “one of the largest and most comprehensive nonhuman primate facilities, designed specifically for monkeys, in the United States.”
In 2023, the company landed a new federal contract to run a large monkey colony on Morgan Island in the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto (ACE) basin in South Carolina. The 4,500 island is mostly marshland, with the exception of 370 acres of upland, where approximately 3,500 free-ranging rhesus monkeys live.
According to industry publication Outsourcing Pharma, Alpha Genesis won a $1 million grant from an unnamed “household” pharmaceutical company for research into progressive brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Animal testing is often a critical step in the process of adopting life-saving medicine, but it remains a contentious issue because of animal cruelty concerns.
“Monkeys and apes are often the last and most critical link between basic research and human clinical application,” Alpha Genesis said on its website.
“The similarity of nonhuman primates to humans in genetic makeup, behavior and organ system function provides medical researchers an unparalleled opportunity to understand, treat and prevent human disease,” it continued.
According to the company, clinical trials involving monkeys over the last century contributed to the development of cures and treatment improvements for a slew of health conditions, including polio, typhoid fever, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer chemotherapy, yellow fever, German measles, anti-rejection drugs, Parkinson’s disease, HIV, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, among many others.