All missing monkeys now found after escape from US research lab in South Carolina
2025-01-28
Category: news

The final missing monkey of a group that escaped from a South Carolina research facility has been captured and returned, according to local police. More than three dozen monkeys escaped from the primate research facility last November after a keeper left their pen open.The Yemassee Police Department confirmed in a social media post that all monkeys have now been returned. Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, which runs the facility, told local media that the final monkey was returned "safe and sound". 
During their escape, the 43 monkeys, all young females of the rhesus macaque species, stayed close to the research facility. Soon after they got out in November the monkeys "appeared to be in good health, dancing and running about in the trees", according to the Yemassee Police Department, which has been providing regular updates."All monkeys recovered previously continue to be in excellent health, still feasting on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as monkey biscuits," CEO Westergaard said in an update that the police posted in November. They were on the loose in a part of the state known as the Lowcountry.Alpha Genesis breeds primates for medical testing and research and, according to South Carolina newspaper The Post and Courier, animals have broken out of the facility two other times in the last decade.In 2016, 19 monkeys escaped before being returned about six hours later. Two years earlier, 26 primates escaped.The town of Yemassee, 60 miles (100km) east of Charleston, has a population of fewer than 1,100 residents.The Animal Welfare Institute requested the US Department of Agriculture investigate the research facility following the latest escape.
