A Tennessee woman shot a vervet monkey she said tried to attack her, according to police. The monkey later died from its wounds at the Chattanooga Zoo.
The woman, whose name was not released, went to feed her cats Thursday afternoon in Thrasher, Tennessee, when the monkey approached her and tried to attack her, a spokesperson from the Soddy-Daisy Police Department told CBS News. The woman said she recently had hip surgery and tried to get away from the monkey.
She told police she went to get her shotgun from her house to defend herself.
Officers found the wounded monkey in the driveway and transported it to the Chattanooga Zoo to be treated. A zoo spokesperson said the money arrived Thursday evening and was moved into the animal hospital.
“Unfortunately, due to the severity of the monkey’s wounds, the best course of action for the animal was humane euthanasia,” Jake Cash, the spokesperson for Chattanooga Zoo, confirmed to CBS News. He added the zoo consulted with an animal shelter, Humane Educational Society, and thoroughly examined the monkey’s condition before it was euthanized.