Local in South Carolina town with lab monkeys on loose reveals terrifying encounter with ‘diseased’ animal

A resident in the South Carolina town where dozens of monkeys are on the loose has revealed their terrifying encounter with one of the ‘diseased’ animals from a separate incident.

This Wednesday lunchtime 43 rhesus macaques escaped from a research facility known as the ‘monkey farm’ in Yemassee, a town of just 1,000 about 50 miles west of Charleston.

It sparked a major search operation with police setting up traps and cameras around the town and urging locals to lock their doors and windows to keep out the primates — though officers insist there is ‘no threat’ to public health.

Residents say in recent years they have dealt with multiple escapes involving monkeys linked to the Alpha Genesis lab — but this is the first time they have been told to lock down their homes.

A local business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told DailyMail.com how they came face-to-face with a monkey with a ‘softball-sized’ tumor on its neck and a deranged look in its eyes in a separate incident they said occurred in 2020.

The local heard clattering on their store roof and came outside to find the animal on top of their AC, describing it as ‘freaky’.

‘It looked diseased, this monkey, it looked very unhappy. There was something in the monkey’s eyes,’ they said. ‘So we called the police, and they told the lab — and then people came wearing hazmats to take it away.’

Meanwhile, Alpha Genesis CEO Dr Greg Westergaard told DailyMail.com the latest accident occurred after a caretaker failed to correctly close the gate of an outdoor enclosure housing a group of young female monkeys.

The above images show one of the escaped monkeys in woodlands near the lab

Local business owner Charlotte Murray said that she was not concerned, although this was the first time that she has heard of so many monkeys escaping from the facility

‘It’s not like they left the door open,’ he said, ‘the individual shut it but the latch wasn’t secured correctly so that it was “monkey-proof.”

‘And then they all went out in a flood, if you look at a flock of birds in the sky — it was a bit like that.’

The Alpha Genesis facility rears monkeys to be used for vaccine and drug research for a range of diseases.

Dr Westergaard said the current troop of escaped monkeys posed no threat of infecting people because they had not yet been used in experiments.

The escaped monkeys are mostly small females weighing 6 to 7lbs, Dr Westergaard said, that are ‘skittish’ and sensitive to loud noises and sudden movements.

He said police had tracked them to woodland near the facility, where traps with bait are being deployed to try and recapture them.

But local business owner Charlotte Murray said she’s aware of residents who claim to have witnessed the primates in their yards.

Ms Murray, who has lived in the area for decades, told DailyMail.com: ‘The center normally does a great job during escapes, but this is the first time that I remember that they have asked people to keep doors and windows locked. That is a shift.

‘I have seen escaped monkeys near the county hall campus before, but it has been quite a while since this happened.

‘Overall, we are not very afraid here. They are lovely animals, and I understand that these [latest escapees] are very small, so I’m not afraid.’

Despite the police advice to lock down homes, DailyMail.com spoke to several other residents who seemed equally unconcerned. 

One joked that they planned to put out bananas as a treat for the animals.

Dr Greg Westergaard, the CEO of Alpha Genesis, said that the escaped monkeys were currently sitting in the trees near to the center. The video is from the Island Packet

The facility, which houses more than a thousand monkeys, is based on the edge of the town of Yemassee – 50 miles west of Charleston

A 2022 report from the USDA found that between January and August that year there were six recorded escapes.

In one case, a troop of 10 monkeys escaped through a weak chain link in their fence, while in three other incidents monkeys managed to remove wooden panels separating their cages. 

There was also an incident where one monkey escaped and leaving medical attention after 

Alpha Genesis was fined $12,000 in June 2018 over four previous escapes as well as other issues with its enclosures.

The above image shows a monkey in an enclosure at the center. The escaped monkeys had been there for a month. The video is from the Island Packet

Forty monkeys have escaped from a research facility in South Carolina. Pictured above is a wild macaque in Thailand

In 2016,  19 monkeys broke out of their cage and were captured almost six hours later.

And in December 2014, when some 26 monkeys also escaped from the facility.

Alpha Genesis also runs another facility for housing monkeys on Morgan Island, just off the coast of South Carolina. 

Overall, it houses more than 5,000 monkeys at the two sites.