- A driver who saw a van crashing in stopped to help.
- She looked inside one of the crates scattered around the place and a monkey hissed at her.
- She is now being treated for rabies and PETA wants the incident investigated.
A woman who came across the accident Friday of a van towing a trailer carrying 100 monkeys was reportedly treated after a monkey spat at her and she developed symptoms of pink eye.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the US Department of Agriculture is investigating the crash, which happened on a highway in east-central Pennsylvania, and subsequent attempts to round up some of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys that had escaped from their crates. .
The accident involved the collision of the pickup truck and a dump truck near the Danville exit on Interstate 80. Pennsylvania State Police said several monkeys escaped after Friday’s collision and that one had not been found overnight.
Michele Fallon, the Danville, Pennsylvania woman who was involved in the crash, told the Press Enterprise newspaper that she and another motorist who pulled over to help, the other driver said they saw a cat cross the road.
When Fallon looked into a crate, she heard a noise and saw a monkey inside. “She put her finger in there and a monkey appeared,” Lisa Jones-Engel, senior science adviser for primate experimentation at PETA, told USA TODAY. “She made it clear to me during one of our conversations that her face was full of respiratory droplets,” said Jones-Engel, who had spoken to Fallon.
Friday told WOLF-TV she went to the emergency room after becoming concerned that she had an open cut on her hand and developed symptoms resembling pink eyes.
Fallon, who will be on preventative treatment for about two weeks, told WOLF-TV, “because the monkey hissed at me and there was feces around, and I got an open cut, they just want be careful.”
Kristen Nordlund, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday night that all 100 monkeys have since been found. Three were euthanized.
PETA has criticized the CDC for what it considers shoddy follow-up following the incident. People scratched or bitten by a macaque monkey are at risk for the herpes B virus, as well as other diseases such as salmonella, Ebola virus, tuberculosis, yellow fever and other illnesses, according to the CDC website.
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Fallon is being treated with antiviral drugs and other drugs to protect against rabies, PETA said in a statement.
But reports from the scene suggest “feces and urine from the terrified monkeys were spilled on the freeway as crates – which weren’t tied down as required – flew from the truck, and the (CDC) is expected to scramble to ensure that many of the people who were at the scene are not in danger,” PETA said.
Tracking isn’t just important for bystanders who came across the crash, but also for first responders, Jones-Engel told USA TODAY. “I’m surprised the CDC hasn’t been more responsive to first responders on this.”
Neither the USDA nor the CDC responded to requests for comment on the incident.
PETA has asked the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to investigate the incident for potential violations in the transport and handling of the monkeys, which PETA said were on their way to a laboratory in the Missouri. “We believe that the handling and treatment of monkeys before, during and after the collision may constitute violations,” PETA Vice President Alka Chandna said in a letter to Robert Gibbens, director of wellness operations. be animal at USDA APHIS.
In the labs, workers wear personal protective equipment to protect them from bodily fluids, scratches and bites from monkeys. Any exposure, such as that described by Fallon, “is immediately addressed under strict and rigorous protocols to reduce the risk of disease transmission,” Jones-Engel said.
The CDC requires a minimum 31-day quarantine for monkeys after they arrive in the United States, she said.
About 1.2 million macaque monkeys have been imported into the United States since 1975, Jones-Engel said. She provided a PowerPoint presentation from the CDC showing declining numbers of imported nonhuman primates between 2019 and 2020 — China is limiting the number of exports — and more animals reported dead on arrival and dying during quarantine.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t work,” she said. “The monkeys don’t give us the treatments, they don’t give us the vaccines. All we do is increase the risk to the human population.”
A Press Enterprise editorial took a different approach, suggesting that monkey and primate studies are essential for medical research, including helping “injured soldiers and stroke victims regain their independence after losing members or control over them,” he wrote.
It’s easy to see why many people found themselves on the side of the monkeys when they escaped from their cages near Danville and fled for freedom,” the editorial said. “They are furry animals, cute and smart. And laboratories in our country should do absolutely everything possible to ensure that the minimum number of animals are tested that will guarantee a scientifically valid result. … But while we appreciate the medical advances that non-human primate research has brought, we must also recognize that cargoes like the one that crashed in Danville on Friday are necessary.”
Contribute: The Associated Press
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
