The escape of laboratory animals brings attention to animal rights 

A truck overturned on Interstate 59 in Mississippi on Oct. 28, 2025, causing eight of the 21 rhesus macaques that it was carrying to escape from captivity. All but one of the escaped monkeys were killed. 

As of Nov. 6, the last monkey on the loose was found and captured, according to The Associated Press (AP) News. 

The monkeys were being housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. As written by AP News, “Tulane has said it wasn’t transporting the monkeys and they do not belong to the university.” 

Five monkeys were killed as law officers hunted for them in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Two other monkeys that were on the loose were later shot and killed by civilians, who said they were protecting their families and neighborhoods. 

Officials warned the public not to approach the monkeys due to their known aggressiveness. 

PreLabs, which, on its website, describes itself as a biomedical research support organization, said in a statement that the animals were being lawfully transported to a licensed research facility. It said the monkeys weren’t carrying any known diseases. Thirteen of the monkeys that were not killed arrived safely at their original destination, according to Tulane. 

“The escape is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and how contracts demanding confidentiality prevent the public from knowing key facts about studies involving animals,” wrote AP News. 

A similar incident happened on Nov. 6, 2024, where 43 rhesus macaques escaped from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee, South Carolina, when a new employee failed to fully secure an enclosure. 

This incident sparked animal activists to demand that all laboratory animals be set free. 

The monkeys were not infected with diseases and were harmless but skittish. From an article published by AP News on Nov. 7, 2024, “The monkeys are females weighing about 7 pounds (3 kilograms) and are so young and small that they haven’t been used for testing, police said.” 

The majority of the monkeys were recaptured within two weeks of the escape. The last four of the 43 escaped monkeys were finally lured back with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and recaptured after a nearly three-month search, on Jan. 24, 2025. 

According to The New York Times, “Four stragglers continued to wander for weeks and braved thick, wooded terrain and a rare snowstorm before they were found and captured in good health, Greg Westergaard, the chief executive of Alpha Genesis Inc., said Friday in a social media post from the Yemassee Police Department.” 

This incident sparked concerns from the public and animal activists as the monkeys escaping due to carelessness endangered not only the safety of the animals, but also put residents at risk, even if the monkeys were claimed to be harmless. 

These two cases are not rare occurrences, with the longstanding history of animal testing and research, there have been several other instances of lab animals escaping captivity. 

According to AP News, “In 2018, federal officials fined Alpha Genesis $12,600 after dozens of primates escaped as well as for an incident that left a few others without water and other problems with how the monkeys were housed.” 

“Officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2014 and an additional 19 got out in 2016.” 

In January 2022, a truck towing a trailer of 100 cynomolgus macaque monkeys collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway. Several of the monkeys escaped, but all the monkeys were accounted for a day after the collision. Three were dead after being euthanized humanely for undisclosed reasons. 

The monkeys were headed to a quarantine facility, approved by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an undisclosed location after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on a flight from Mauritius. 

Repeated instances of lab animals escaping captivity point toward the much deeper and underlying ethical issue of using animals for human research. 

According to AP News, “Humans have been using the rhesus macaque for scientific research since the late 1800s when the theory of evolution gained more acceptance, according to a 2022 research paper by the journal eLife.” 

“For more than a century, they have held a mirror to humanity, revealing our strengths and weaknesses through their own clever behaviors, organ systems and genetic code.” 

The intelligent primates have been launched on rockets into space, subjected to studies on vaccines, organ transplants and the impact of separating infants from mothers. Their research was also vital in fighting AIDS, polio and COVID-19. 

“‘Every large research university in the United States probably has some rhesus macaques hidden somewhere in the basement of its medical school,’ according to the 2007 book, ‘Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World’,” wrote AP News. 

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) houses over 6,800 non-human primates, making it one of the largest primate center in the United States. 

While the scientific community may argue that the use of animals for research has been revolutionary for the greater good of mankind, animal activists argue otherwise. 

Animal rights organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have long been advocating for animal welfare and rights, working towards the abolishment of using animals for research.