Tennessee woman shoots monkey who tried to attack her, police say
A Tennessee woman shot a vervet monkey she said tried to attack her, according to police. The monkey later died from its wounds at the Chattanooga Zoo.
The woman, whose name was not released, went to feed her cats Thursday afternoon in Thrasher, Tennessee, when the monkey approached her and tried to attack her, a spokesperson from the Soddy-Daisy Police Department told CBS News. The woman said she recently had hip surgery and tried to get away from the monkey.
She told police she went to get her shotgun from her house to defend herself.
Officers found the wounded monkey in the driveway and transported it to the Chattanooga Zoo to be treated. A zoo spokesperson said the monkey arrived Thursday evening and was moved into the animal hospital.
"Unfortunately, due to the severity of the monkey's wounds, the best course of action for the animal was humane euthanasia," Jake Cash, the spokesperson for Chattanooga Zoo, confirmed to CBS News. He added the zoo consulted with an animal shelter, Humane Educational Society, and thoroughly examined the monkey's condition before it was euthanized.
The Soddy-Daisy Police Department did not say whether the vervet monkey was a pet or if it had an owner, but local media reported the monkey had a collar.
Animal advocacy group PETA has kept a list of incidents with captive primates since 1990 that have resulted in the deaths of over 60 animals and one human. Ownership of exotic pets has jumped in recent years, with 13 percent of households owning such an animal by 2016, according to research conducted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Between 2014 and 2019, 48,793 individual live specimens that were refused clearance by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needed care and placement.
Common in East Africa, vervet monkeys are small, black-faced monkeys weighing between 6 to 11 pounds. These monkeys are hunted for their meat and can be trapped and kept as pets. Experts like to remind people that monkeys are wildlife and should not be kept as pets.
"They are loud, messy, difficult to care for, and can be aggressive," the San Diego Zoo warns in its website.
—Shantel Guzman contributed reporting.
