43 monkeys are still on the run from a laboratory in South Carolina. The CEO believes they are having an adventure

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped from a South Carolina compound have been spotted in the woods near the site and workers are trying to recapture them using food, authorities said Friday with.

The rhesus monkeys I took a break for that On Wednesday, officials said after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee failed to fully lock a door while feeding and checking.

“They are very social monkeys and travel in groups. So when the first couple walks out the door, the others tend to just follow along,” said Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis CBS News.

Westergaard said his main goal is to bring the monkeys back safely and without further problems. “I think they’re having an adventure,” he said.

The monkeys explored the outside fence of the Alpha Genesis compound on Friday and cooed at the monkeys inside, police said in a statement.

“The primates are exhibiting calm and playful behavior, which is a positive sign,” the police statement said, adding that company employees are closely monitoring the monkeys and keeping their distance as they work to safely capture them.

The monkeys are about the size of a cat. They are all females and weigh around 3 kilograms.

Alpha Genesis, federal health officials and police all said the monkeys posed no threat to public health. The facility breeds the monkeys to sell to medical and other researchers.

“They are not infected with any disease. They are harmless and a little shy,” Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said Thursday.

Authorities continue to recommend that people who live near the site, about a mile from downtown Yemassee, close their windows and doors and call 911 if they see the monkeys. When approached, they can become more nervous and difficult to catch, officials said.

Eve Cooper, a biology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has studied rhesus macaques, said the animals could be dangerous and urged people to keep their distance.

Rhesus monkeys can be aggressive. And some carry the herpes B virus, which can be fatal to humans, Cooper said.

However, Alpha Genesis states on its website that it specializes in pathogen-free primates. Cooper noted that there are pathogen-free populations of rhesus macaques that have been quarantined and tested.

“I would give her a wide berth,” Cooper said. “They are unpredictable animals. And they can behave quite aggressively when they are scared.”

AlphaGenesis According to its website, the company makes primates available for research worldwide at its site about 50 miles northeast of Savannah, Georgia.

It is known locally as the “monkey farm”. And around Yemassee and its roughly 1,100 residents, just off Interstate 95 about 2 miles away, there is more amusement than panic Auldbrass Plantationa Frank Lloyd Wright house designed in the 1930s.

There have been previous escape attempts, but the monkeys haven't caused any problems, said William McCoy, owner of watch repair shop Lowcountry Horology.

“Usually they come home because that’s where the food is,” he said.

McCoy has been living in Yemassee for about two years, and although he plans to stay away from the monkeys, he has his own light-hearted plan to get them back.

“I’m stocking up on bananas, maybe they’ll show up,” McCoy said.

The Alpha Genesis site is regularly inspected by federal officials.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Alpha Genesis a partial $12,600 after officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2014 and another 19 escaped in 2016.

According to a USDA report, the company was also fined for the escape of individual monkeys and for the killing of a monkey by others even though it was assigned to the wrong social group.

The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now sent a letter to the USDA on Thursday calling on the agency to immediately send an inspector to the Alpha Genesis facility, conduct a thorough investigation and treat them as repeat offenders. The group was involved in the fine against the company in 2018.

“The apparent negligence that allowed these 40 monkeys to escape not only jeopardized the animals’ safety, but also endangered South Carolinians,” wrote Michael Budkie, the group’s executive director.

The USDA, which has inspected the site 10 times since 2020, did not immediately respond to the letter.

The most recent federal inspection of the facility in May found there were about 6,700 primates on site and there were no problems.

In a 2022 investigation, federal veterinarians reported that two animals died because their fingers became trapped in structures and they were exposed to harsh weather. They also found that the cages were not adequately secured. Inspectors said criminal charges, civil penalties or other sanctions could follow if the problems are not corrected.

Since then, Alpha Genesis has undergone six inspections, with minor problems reported only once.

In January 2023, the USDA said temperatures in some of the site's monkey cages were outside the required range of 45 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (7.2 to 29.5 degrees Celsius). The inspection found moldy food in a container, sharp edges on a gate that could cut an animal, and mud, food waste, used medical supplies, mechanical equipment and general construction debris on the site.

Proponents of medical research using non-human primates said they are critical to life-saving medical advances such as the development of vaccines against COVID-19 due to their similarity to humans. To prevent shortages for U.S. researchers, maintaining a domestic supply of animals is critical.

People have been using rhesus monkeys for scientific research since the late 19th century. Scientists believe that rhesus monkeys and humans diverged from a common ancestor about 25 million years ago and share about 93% of the same DNA.

These monkeys were launched into space on V2 rockets, used for AIDS research, had their genomes mapped, and became stars of their own reality TV show. Demand for them was so great in the early 2000s that a shortage resulted in scientists paying up to $10,000 per animal.

Aside from rats and mice, rhesus macaques are among the most studied animals on the planet, said Dario Maestripieri, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago who wrote the 2007 book “Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World.” ”

The animals are very family-oriented and will side with relatives when fights break out. And they are adept at building political alliances in the face of threats from other apes. But they can be painful to look at. Monkeys with a lower status in the hierarchy live in a constant state of fear and intimidation, Maestripieri said.

“In some ways they represent some of the worst aspects of human nature,” Maestripieri said.

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Lovan reported from Louisville, Kentucky, and Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.