A pet monkey attacked an Oklahoma woman Sunday before a family member of the victim shot and killed the primate, police said.
The attack, which left the woman with non-life-threatening injuries, occurred just after 6 p.m., when police received a report of a monkey on the front porch of a home. according to the Dickson Police Department.
When police arrived at the scene, they called the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife for help. And when the officers got out of the car, the monkey jumped onto the back of the vehicle and then ran towards the victim and climbed on top of her, causing unspecified injuries, police said.
NBC affiliate KTEN of Ada, a city about 83 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, reported that the victim, Brittany Parker, was the person who originally called the police to report the monkey. She told the local station that the monkey «ran up my back and jumped on my head, ripped my hair out and then ripped my ear in half like it was a piece of paper.»
Parker was transported first to Mercy Hospital Ardmore and then to OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City for treatment of her injuries, police said.
She was released from the hospital early Monday with bruises and a sewn-up ear, KTEN reported.
After allegedly attacking Parker, the monkey ran into a wooded area and its owners, and police, unsuccessfully tried to track it down, with police warning the public not to approach the animal. At some point, a member of Parker’s family shot and killed the monkey, police said.
KTEN reported that it was a friend of Parker’s who killed the animal, and Parker claimed that the monkey also attacked the person who killed it. “We called him and he came here, and after they attacked me, the monkey went out to his vehicle and slapped him across the face and pulled his hair,” Parker told the local station.
The monkey’s body is being tested at the Oklahoma Disease Laboratory, according to Dickson police, who said the investigation is ongoing.
Oklahoma law classifies primates as domestic animals, so it’s legal to own one without permission, KTEN reported. But state law too makes it a misdemeanor Punishable by up to $50 or 30 days in jail for failure to properly confine pets.
The Dickson Police Department did not immediately respond to questions.