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More than a month after 43 monkeys escaped from a medical lab in South Carolina, the last four to evade capture were sticking close together. The dozens of young, female Rhesus macaques bred for research broke out of the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee last month after an employee failed to latch the doors to their enclosure. Since then, nearly all of them have been trapped and returned to the research and breeding center, but as of Sunday, four remained on the loose, local news station WCSC reported .
Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said in a statement that those at the center had been seeing the monkey quartet together in a tree on a near-daily basis. The four escapees “look good” and have been seen engaged in grooming, he said. Since the monkeys seem to be “doing well” outside, the staff is simply “waiting for them to go in the traps” rather than taking a more aggressive approach, like having them “darted.
” Alpha Genesis did not immediately return a HuffPost inquiry about the remaining four monkeys, nor about the increased scrutiny the facility has faced in the wake of the highly publicized escape. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture is investigating allegations against the company after advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made a complaint to the agency, alleging mistreatment and neglect. And last month, news broke that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.
C.) had written to both the USDA and National Institutes of Health, alleging “painful and deadly experiments” on the part of the federally funded laboratory. Related From Our Partner.
