A pet monkey attacked an Oklahoma woman on 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 someone’s front porch, according to the Dickson Police Department.
When police arrived at the scene, they called for help from the Oklahoma Wildlife Department. And when the officers got out of the car, the monkey jumped on the back of the vehicle and then ran towards the victim and climbed onto 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 police to report the monkey. She told the local station that the monkey “ran up my back and jumped onto my head, pulled hair out, and then ripped my ear in half like you would 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 to receive treatment for her injuries, police said.
She was released from the hospital early Monday with bruises and a stitched-up ear, KTEN reported.
After allegedly attacking Parker, the monkey then 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 family member of Parker shot and killed the monkey, police said.
KTEN reported it was a friend of Parker’s who killed the animal, with Parker claiming that the monkey also attacked the person who killed it. “We called him and he came over here, and after I had been attacked, the monkey went out to his vehicle, slapped him across the face, and pulled his hair,” Parker told the local station.
The monkey’s body is being analyzed at Oklahoma Disease Laboratory for testing, according to Dickson Police, who said the investigation is ongoing.
Oklahoma law classifies primates as domesticated animals, making it legal to own one without a permit, KTEN reported. But state law also makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to $50 or 30 days in jail to fail to keep domestic animals adequately enclosed.
The Dickson Police Department did not immediately respond to questions.
