โChimp Crazyโ star Tonia Haddix on Thursday was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
The 55-year-old exotic animal broker was convicted for lying to a federal judge about the death of her chimpanzee Tonka, whom she was hiding in her basement. Haddix, who calls herself the โDolly Parton of chimps,โ pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice in March and was arrested in July for harboring yet another ape in her Missouri home.
โNow that Tonia Haddix is locked up, sheโs getting a taste of the suffering she inflicted on animals by imprisoning them in cages and denying them any semblance of a natural life,โ Brittany Peet, PETA Foundationโs general counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said in a statement. โPETA is relieved to see justice done and urges everyone to support the Captive Primate Safety Act, which will keep vulnerable monkeys and apes out of the pet trade and the hands of ruthless dealers like Haddix.โ
PETA first considered legal action against Haddix in 2018 after she took ownership of seven chimpanzees from the now-closed Missouri Primate Foundation, according to the animal rights group. After a court ordered Haddix to relinquish them all, she claimed Tonka โ a celebrity chimp whoโs appeared in โGeorge of the Jungle,โ โBuddyโ and โBabe: Pig in the Cityโ โ had died.
In Episode 2 of the four-part docuseries โChimp Crazy,โ which aired on HBO in 2024, Haddix broke down in tears during a Zoom court hearing as she detailed Tonkaโs alleged death. But just after Missouri Senior District Judge Catherine D. Perry ruled in her favor, the chimp was discovered locked in a small cage in Haddixโs basement, where he could only walk a few steps in each direction and had no access to the outdoors.
โChimp Crazyโ director Eric Goode, who was obscuring his identity via a proxy director during filming due to his reputation as the producer of โTiger King,โ ultimately made the decision to inform PETA where Tonka was. The chimp was removed from Haddixโs custody on June 5, 2022, and relocated to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Fla.
โI didnโt feel guilty,โ proxy director Dwayne Cunningham told The Times last year. โI always said to Tonia, โDonโt ever say anything to me that you donโt want the whole world to know.โ And Tonia being Tonia, she just kept talking. So I didnโt feel guilty; I felt like I was doing my job. But I felt bad for a friend, because I could see that the love story was spiraling out of control.โ
