DICKSON, Okla. (KTEN) — Dickson police are investigating a situation Sunday evening that started when a resident's pet monkey escaped.

Dickson police Chief Tim Duncan said they received a call around 6 p.m. about a monkey on someone's porch in the Grandview and Oakwest Drive area.

"We ended up getting information that it actually did belong to a resident of Dickson who basically lived across the tree-line," Duncan said.

After police arrived, the monkey bit the original caller, Brittany Parker, on the ear.  She was taken to Mercy Hospital in Ardmore and was later transferred to OU Medical Trauma Center in Oklahoma City.

"He 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 said.

A pet monkey escaped and attacked a neighbor in Dickson, Oklahoma.
A pet monkey escaped and attacked a neighbor in Dickson, Oklahoma.  

She was released from the hospital early Monday morning with bruises and a stitched-up ear.

A friend of the victim shot and killed the animal.

"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 said.

Because primates are classified as domesticated animals under Oklahoma law, the state does not require a permit for owning a monkey as a pet.