Pet monkey shot, killed after escaping, ripping woman’s ear

DICKSON, Okla. (KXII) - A Dickson woman is recovering after a monkey attack that she says she never expected.

Brittany Parker said she was sitting on her couch on Sunday when she saw a monkey on her porch.

At first, it just seemed curious.

“I had actually Facetimed some family and I was like, ‘look there’s a monkey,’” Parker said. “He was pacing back and then he was jumping off of my railing and hitting my storm door.”

Parker said the monkey tried to get into the house, even ripping off part of the door handle.

That’s when she called 911.

Dickson Police Chief Tim Duncan said in his 20 years of being in law enforcement, he’s seen a lot of animal-at-large calls- but never a monkey.

Duncan said officers weren’t sure they’d heard the call correctly.

“It’s Oklahoma, it happens,” Duncan said. “We get animal calls all the time. It’s something that we deal with, it’s just- monkeys are not a normal thing for us.”

When the officers arrived, Parker said the monkey was acting friendly towards the officer, so she went outside with her son, and the monkey came charging.

“He crawled up my back, yanked out multiple wads of hair and then ripped my ear in half,” Parker said. “And it was just hanging.”

Parker was taken to the hospital and given a rabies shot.

Meanwhile Dickson police said they were trying to locate the monkey.

It was spotted near Parker’s neighborhood just after sunset.

“We were trying to get a plan together to figure out one, who the owner was and two,what we were gonna do with this monkey,” Duncan said.

Then, a nearby friend of Parker’s shot and killed the monkey.

“Since the woman was injured pretty badly, we’re taking the information to the district attorney’s office, and they’ll make a final decision on what they want to do with this case,” Duncan said.

In the meantime, Parker said she’s worried about her neighborhood.

“I think that there needs to be some type of law that says that you need to have some kind of training as well as a certificate to even hold these type of animals,” Parker said.

She said the experience was traumatic, and doctors are concerned about her hearing as the ear heals.

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