MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — An escaped monkey attacked and injured a woman Wednesday after getting loose from a Myrtle Beach zoo, police said. However, the facility owner disputes that the primate is his.
Shirley Smothers, 74, wondered why her dog was barking and went outside to see the monkey in her yard, WMBF reported.
Myrtle Beach Police said the animal escaped from T.I.G.E.R.S. Myrtle Beach Safari Zoo, which is about a half mile from where Smothers lives. The primate lunged at Smothers, bit her arm and tried to grab her chest before running away.
“We hear the lions and the tigers all the time, because my house backs up to it (T.I.G.E.R.S.), so we hear them all the time, but I never thought I’d walk out and see one sitting on my deck,” Smothers told WMBF. “It was like crazy looking at me, you know what I mean? It had its teeth all showing. He had to be at least two feet tall.”
She was taken to a hospital for treatment, which included at least eight rabies shots, WMBF reported.
“Someone’s gonna have to pay these hospital bills,” Smothers told WMBF. “I can’t afford them. Apparently from what the hospital is telling me, these rabies shots are very, very expensive.”
A police report said an officer and fire battalion chief spoke with Doc Antle, the owner of the zoo, WPDE reported. Police said Antle told them a monkey had gotten loose and wandered into a nearby neighborhood. Police said Antle told them that monkey is allowed to wander the preserve and does occasionally escape, WPDE reported.
Antle, founder of the preserve, disputes the police report and said the monkey is not one of theirs.
“We are not aware of any primates that left our property,” Antle told WMBF. “We have them here. We have them out with us all the time as we have for the last 30 years that we’ve been here in Myrtle Beach, and we know of no primates that left our facility yesterday in any capacity.”
He said all the animals are vaccinated for rabies yearly.
“This is a strange story,” Antle told WPDE. “However, for years, we have all read and heard accounts of animals on the loose. Perhaps people were confused by what they saw, but we really have no explanation. All of our animals are accounted for here at the preserve. There’s certainly a lot of speculation about the situation. And, it concerns us, too. But, I can tell you with certainty that this animal wasn’t one of ours. With Myrtle Beach moving into a COVID-recovery, the area is seeing a huge surge of tourists visiting our area. We don’t have the answer but are very glad that the Myrtle Beach resident is safe and doing well.”
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Cox Media Group
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