Kriti Mehrotra
As a four-part documentary series delving deep into the relationship between people and their owned primates, HBO’s ‘Chimp Crazy’ can only be described as intriguing and mind-boggling. That’s because it exposes not just the risk these owners take when they try to raise such animals as family members but also its effect on the latter’s overall emotional, mental, plus physical welfare. At the forefront of it all is Tonia Rene Haddix, the Chimp Mom as well as self-proclaimed “Dolly Parton of Chimps,” who actually continues to care for many exotic animals in captivity.
Tonia Haddix Found Her Passion For Chimps Unexpectedly
For as long as Tonia can remember, she has been a caretaker — someone to lend a shoulder for others to cry on, serve as their support system, and help them through their darkest times. Therefore, per the aforementioned production, when this Ozark native found herself married relatively young to a man who didn’t believe women should work, she found her calling as a foster parent. “I was 19 years old and the youngest foster parent in the state of Missouri,” she candidly said. “I’ve had practically 75 foster kids and then some medically necessary placements too.”
Tonia continued, “You start hanging around those special needs kids, and you realize they were kind of the kids that were left behind, so of course, they were the ones I wanted to help most.” Little did she know she’d find her daughter among them — she got a young girl at six weeks old with fetal alcohol syndrome, only to officially adopt her at the age of 2 before finding out she was pregnant. Her only biological child, Justin Range, thus came into this world nine months later, making him and his sister the two most important people to her until they were teens with their own lives.
That’s when Tonia reportedly expanded her wings as a nurse while also finding a passion for monkeys — she was never a big animal lover, but she did have a soft spot for dogs, primates, as well as wallabies. Hence, when she realized she had a bit more time on her hands, she decided to adopt baby monkeys to raise as her own, just to then treat them more like her children than her own kids. This is how she came across chimpanzee breeder Connie Casey, following which she began volunteering at her Missouri Primate Foundation until she essentially took over daily operations.
Tonia Haddix Lied Consistently For Selfish Reasons
Tonia’s dedication to the chimpanzees and the other animals at this Festus facility has never been in question, yet the conditions under which these beings were kept did concern PETA over the years. That’s because it came to light that they repeatedly did not meet the minimum federal standards for animal care as established in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), driving them to take action. The former did consequently make several updates to the primates’ penns and even shared proof on her Facebook profile in the hopes of avoiding extraction, yet her efforts were in vain.
In early June 2021, after a federal judge found Tonia in contempt of court for violating a consent decree, he ordered her to hand over all seven of her chimps to the Center for Great Apes. However, when officials came to retrieve these primates in a few days, one of them was missing — Tonka, a 30-something-year-old, 200-lb celebrity chimpanzee, was nowhere to be found. It was later asserted by the former, who was not on-site at the time per court orders, that this ‘George of the Jungle’ and ‘Buddy’ actor had actually died of heart failure on May 30, 2021.
Tonia had already reported Tonka had an enlarged heart, yet neither this nor her claims of having cremated him with the help of her now-husband, Jerry Aswegan, were believed for even a moment. After all, she had not only lied before but had also consistently, vehemently declared she loved her chimps more than her kids, so her not saying anything about Tonka prior was strange. It was more than a year later that it came to light she had relocated him to a friend’s place in Ohio for six months before moving him into the basement of her new Sunrise Beach, Missouri, home.
Tonia Haddix Has Tried to Defend Her Actions
According to Tonia’s own narrative, she simply could not part ways with Tonka because of the innately profound connection they had gradually built since they first found one another years before. “Tonka loved me as much as I loved him,” she once said. “It was meant to be; it was just natural… I’ll do anything to protect that primate. Anything. I would give everything possession-wise up for that child. I would give my life to him. And that’s exactly what I did, to be honest.” She also told Rolling Stone, “Tonka is the love of my life. He really, truly is. I love him like a son.”
Tonia has also stated that while Tonka was in his basement cage for most of her year-long hoax, she spoiled him rotten with a 60″ TV, McDonald’s Happy Meals, plus a new hammock. However, PETA has a very different opinion on the conditions under which he was kept, even if he was allowed to roam free during the day — they believe he wasn’t receiving the nutrition or exercise he needed. Then there’s also the fact he had been isolated from the six other chimps he had spent most of his time with over the past few years, which included his mate Tammy and their kids.
“Tonka was my chimp legally, and even though a judge did not agree with that, I did not agree with her,” Tonia told Rolling Stone in 2022. “I felt I had to (fake his death) to protect him because I didn’t feel like we got our fair day in court. If you can’t beat the system, you got to go by what you think is the right thing to do.” That’s why she lied to PETA, a judge, as well as media outlets for a year, all the while also roping in friends to look after her chimp, attempting to fake DNA test results, and claiming she offered officials $10,000 as a bribe to pretend they didn’t see Tonka in her home.
Tonia Haddix is Now an Exotic Animal Broker
Although Tonia eventually lost Tonka to the 150-acre Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida, she has not given up her fight against PETA or stopped being involved with exotic animals. In fact, she has since taken up the profession of an exotic animal broker, meaning she helps clients across the nation connect with breeders or sellers to get the exact creatures they desire. As if that’s not enough, she and her husband Jerry, who operated a mobile petting zoo for over three decades, opened the doors to their own facility named Sunrise Beach Safari in August 2023.
Through this facility, Tonia continues to engage with exotic animals of all kinds, especially as they even offer petting experiences for baby animals to promote her brokerage business. We should also mention that while she could have faced five years behind bars if charged and convicted of perjury, she was let off relatively easily by only being ordered to pay nearly $250,000 to PETA for her lies as well as to cover their legal expenses. The latter organization did try to come to an agreement with her later on, stating they’d waive this monetary charge if she vowed never to dabble in anything related to animals again, but she refused — that’s because she actually plans on building her own sanctuary on a small, isolated island one day.
Read More: Tonka: Where is the Chimpanzee Now?
