‘Chimp Crazy’ star Tonia Haddix sentenced to prison for lying about Tonka’s death

Chimp Crazy star Tonia Haddix is heading to prison.

The Missouri-based primate broker, who was the subject of the 2024 HBO docuseries, was sentenced to 46 months in prison after lying about the death of a chimpanzee actor named Tonka in U.S. District Court. Haddix previously pleaded guilty to two felony counts of perjury and one felony count of obstruction of justice, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Representatives for Haddix did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

Haddix operated the Missouri Primate Foundation, which was locked in a civil legal battle with PETA over alleged mistreatment of the chimpanzees in her care. Haddix “repeatedly failed to comply” with court orders instructing her to improve the quality of care she provided to her chimps, and in 2021, a judge ordered her to relinquish all of her primates to the Center for Great Apes sanctuary in Florida, according to the USAO.

However, when authorities removed the rest of her apes, Haddix repeatedly claimed that Tonka had died, and that she had cremated his remains. “He just died on his own, so there was no saving him,” she claimed, per the USAO. 

That false narrative extended into official court motions and declarations that constitute perjury since she was under oath.

While shooting Chimp Crazy, the filmmakers behind the documentary — including Tiger King director Eric Goode — discovered that Tonka was alive in a cage in Maddix’s basement. Upon hearing Maddix say that she planned to have the chimp euthanized, the production alerted PETA to the situation in 2022 and federal marshals transferred Tonka to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida.

The USAO also stated that two weeks after her guilty plea this year, Haddix was jailed for violating the terms of her pretrial release and appearance bond because a court-ordered search of her home revealed that she was hiding another chimp from authorities.

“Now that Tonia Haddix is locked up, she’s getting a taste of the suffering she inflicted on animals by imprisoning them in cages and denying them any semblance of a natural life,” Brittany Peet, the PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said in a statement. “PETA 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.”

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Tonka, who appeared in films like George of the Jungle and Babe: Pig in the City before entering Haddix’s care, has now adapted to a 17-chimp family at Save the Chimps. 

“When Tonka came to us, he was more human-oriented than chimp-oriented and rarely involved himself in group politics,” Jenny Friedman, a care staffer for the sanctuary, said in a statement on Save the Chimps’ website. “Now, you would never know that Tonka is new to the group. He interacts affectionately with all the chimps and will drop everything to join a grooming session.”