Move over Tiger King, it’s time to meet the Chimp Queen. Tonia Haddix is one of several women who raise chimpanzees as exotic pets at the centre of a new docuseries aptly titled Chimp Crazy.
The pink-clad Haddix is a former nurse-turned-exotic animal broker who calls herself the “Dolly Parton of chimps”. In 2021, after a stoush with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), she faked the death of one of the animals under her care, a 32-year-old retired Hollywood chimp named Tonka.
The four-part series dives into that turn of events, the ensuing lawsuit launched by PETA against Haddix and the involvement of actor Alan Cumming, who starred opposite Tonka in 1997 film Buddy. In the trailer for Chimp Crazy, which is directed by filmmaker Eric Goode, who also helmed Tiger King, Haddix explains that she and Tonka “just found each other”.
“Tonka loved me as much as I loved Tonka,” she says. “It was meant to be, it was just natural. It’s like your love for God. And I’ll do anything to protect that primate. Anything. I would give everything possession-wise up for that child. I would give my life for him. And that’s exactly what I did, to be honest.”
According to reports at the time, Missouri-based Haddix became embroiled in a legal dispute with PETA after the organisation filed suits against the Missouri Primate Foundation, where Tonka and several other chimpanzees were kept. Haddix cared for the primates at the facility.
Several chimps were to be given over to PETA to rehome at an animal sanctuary and Tonka, who also starred in George of the Jungle, was supposed to be among them. But Haddix claimed in court that Tonka had died and his body had been cremated.
PETA suspected that Tonka was still alive, however, and nearly a year later, the old chimp was found caged in the basement of a home in Sunrise Beach. The animal welfare group said Tonka “could only take a few steps in any direction” and was not receiving proper veterinary care.
In 2023, Haddix was ordered by a US court to pay about $342,000 to PETA for legal fees and costs. Tonka was moved to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida.
Given the nature of the case, Chimp Crazy is set to be as disturbing as it will be fascinating. The docuseries will also look at other “chimp mum” experiences and, according to a media release, promises to reveal “the singular bonds that form between owners and their highly intelligent great ape pets”. It also sets out to expose the risks humans take when they try to raise these animals as members of their family, as well as the dangers to the welfare of the animals themselves.
“Flashing back to other dramatic stories of chimps living in captivity, Chimp Crazy broaches thorny issues around private primate ownership and the folly of imposing human traits onto captive apes who have no agency over where or how they live,” the series’ media release states.
While chimpanzees, who share 98 per cent of their genetic profile with humans, can be trained for appearances in films and commercials and have been owned as pets, their brute strength makes them dangerous.
In 2009, a chimp named Travis, who was raised from a young age alongside humans, wearing clothes and eating meals with his adopted ‘family’, attacked a friend of his owner. Charla Nash had visited the Connecticut home where Travis lived many times before, but on this occasion, almost every bone in her face was broken, her face was almost ripped off and one of her hands was also severed by the 14-year-old chimp, who was shot by police called to the scene.
Chimp Crazy premieres on Monday 19 August and is available to stream in Australia on BINGE. The series will also be available to watch on Hubbl, On Demand and on Famous from 8:30 pm.
