ohmidog!

A one-foot-tall laboratory monkey is on the loose in North Carolina after escaping from a Wake Forest University research facility, and there are some concerns about how he’s going to react to tonight’s fireworks.

The 8-pound macaque was last seen Tuesday hiding in some tall trees in a residential area, doing her best to stay away from animal control officials seeking to capture her.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, the 16-year-old breeding monkey has been at the Wake Forest University Primate Center, on Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Friedburg Campus in Davidson County, since 2008. The primate center is on 38 fenced acres within a 200-acre campus.

She escaped Friday when a housing area was being cleaned. Officials believe the monkey — a crab-eating macaque — went through an open gate, then managed to open asecond  gate in a chain link fence.

“She actually hit the latch — hit it just right,” said Richard Young, the director of animal resources and head veterinarian.

Animal control officers got their first call about the escape Monday — from a resident reporting a monkey in her backyard.

Wake Forest officials said they believed the animal hadn’t gone far, and were concentrating their search in and around the primate center.

As of late Tuesday, the officials had set seven traps, using oranges and bananas as bait, but the monkey had not been captured.

PETA says it has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking the agency to investigate the primate center for possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

“While we’re cheering for this monkey, who has gained independence from her captors just in time for the Fourth of July, Wake Forest’s ineptitude has led this monkey into a foreign environment that will be especially terrifying and dangerous as fireworks explode in the coming days,” PETA said in a statement.

“These intelligent, sensitive animals deserve better than to be confined to cages for decades and forced to breed, only to have their babies taken from them and subjected to painful and deadly experiments.”

Forsyth County Animal Control officer Ricky Beeson said officers hope to trap the monkey, but added tranquilizer guns would be used if necessary — possibly even real guns, if the monkey is posing a public safety risk.

(Photo: A Forsyth County Animal Control officer uses a spotting scope to search the woods in Clemmons for a missing macaque; by Walt Unks / Winston-Salem Journal)