video by Rickie Smith / LakeExpo.com
This is a love story—albeit a crazy one.
For Tonia Haddix, nothing beats her special affinity for chimpanzees: one retired (famous) chimp in particular. It’s clear as day when you speak with her. She might even tear-up, recalling memories during her time at the now-defunct Missouri Primate Foundation and speaking candidly about the beloved chimp that she would do anything for. “I fell in love with Tonka.”
Tonka is a retired Hollywood chimp who ended up in Haddix’s care. She loves him — and talks about him — like one of her own children: “I will always love Tonka because he is my son, even though he wasn't biologically mine.”
Haddix, an exotic animal broker and former nurse, operates the Sunrise Beach Safari in Sunrise Beach, Mo., near Lake of the Ozarks, along with her husband Jerry Aswegan.
But Haddix isn’t the only one who loves chimps, particularly Tonka.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals shares a deep commitment to animals, claiming “we are all the same.” The organization advocates for animal rights across various industries, challenging the view that humans are the superior species and pushing for compassion toward all animals, including pets.
After Haddix faked Tonka’s death in hopes of being able to keep the chimp, she faced a lawsuit from PETA, leading to a multi-year saga that involved her family and even brought in notable figures like actor Alan Cumming.
Haddix and PETA’s heated story made headlines for years, but its fame attained a new height thanks to a four-part documentary series on HBO.
Chimp Crazy, an HBO docu-series directed by Eric Goode of Tiger King fame, premiered on Aug. 18, 2024, and followed the lives of multiple “chimp moms.” But the main focus was Haddix, as the series explored her deep bond with Tonka as well as the complexities and risks of raising captive primates.
The show made her famous: visitors to her Sunrise Beach Safari can be seen searching for Haddix, in hopes of snagging a selfie… maybe with a sloth in the background. But Haddix calls Chimp Crazy a “very cheap documentary,” assembled in search of a certain narrative.
Lies, Love, & Lawsuits
It all started with a single deception.
Those familiar with Eric Goode’s Tiger King know the salacious storytelling and intrigue: it was arguably the most-buzzed-about TV show from a year (2020) when Americans spent quite a bit of time indoors watching TV. So the Chimp Crazy producers used a proxy director, former circus clown and animal trainer Dwayne Cunningham.
Dwayne Cunningham
“They knew if I knew it was Eric Goode entertainment, I never would’ve consented. I’m not like Tiger King because I do care about my animals,” Haddix said.
Now she feels betrayed, saying of Cunningham, “He sold not just me but all the animal people... He did it for a dollar, and that concerns me more than anything in this world because you sold out something you love.”
Drawn to chimps after owning monkeys for 20 years, Haddix became involved with chimpanzees when she paid $300 to interact with a baby at Connie Casey’s Missouri Primate Foundation in Festus, Mo. (previously known as Chimparty).
“I got myself, hook, line, and sinker,” Haddix mused. “If you’re an animal person, it’s not a good idea to get around a chimp—then you’ll want one yourself!”
After falling in love with the species, Haddix began helping Casey regularly.
But meanwhile, tensions between PETA and the Missouri Primate Foundation were growing. PETA had filed suit, and soon federal agents would raid the foundation headquarters to seize the chimps… but not before Haddix took the reins, essentially inheriting seven chimps from Casey in 2018.
While PETA’s interest in the chimps led them to wage legal battles, Haddix spent an increasing amount of time with and doting on the primates.
“PETA filed an endangered species act lawsuit against the facility and its operator on behalf of the chimpanzees there,” said Brittany Peet, a lawyer for the organization who also featured in the documentary. The facility reportedly had been racking up violations for years, like “unsanitary enclosures, housing chimpanzees in conditions where there was so much built up urine, that the ammonia smell burned the nostrils of the USDA inspector.”
Peet claimed transferring the chimps to Haddix was an attempt to dodge the lawsuit, saying they were being given to someone without proper training or experience. As a result, Haddix was added as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
According to her, filming started around 2019.
Taking Tonka
Eventually, all parties signed a consent decree allowing Haddix to keep three chimps, including Tonka, if she could provide the appropriate enclosure, hire a trained caregiver, and demonstrate proper care. When Haddix reportedly did not meet these terms, the court ordered all seven chimps to be relocated to an accredited sanctuary. However, Haddix says the deck was stacked against her because of the timing.
“As soon as I signed that agreement, COVID hit,” Haddix said. “Nobody could have built it in their time frame. There was no way because everything was shut down.”
Knowing the feds were coming, Haddix took a dramatic step to keep her “kid.” She faked Tonka’s death.
“I just made a bad choice out of love,” Haddix said. “I happened to fall in love with a chimpanzee and wanted to keep him safe.”
When agents arrived to remove the primates, they took six chimps to The Center For Great Apes in Florida. But Tonka was missing, with Haddix claiming he had died and she had burned his body. PETA began searching for the chimp all over the country, even offering a $10,000 reward that was matched by Alan Cumming, who had starred in the 1997 film Buddy with Tonka and never forgot the chimp.
But the film crew knew what PETA later learned: Tonka was still alive.
“She had actually transported him illegally to a roadside zoo in Ohio, then subsequently again illegally transported him back to the state of Missouri,” Peet said, adding that Haddix was then “keeping him in a tiny cage in her basement.”
The chimp 'Tonka' at Tonia Haddix's home. PETA reported another chimp was found in Haddix's home in July 2025.
All throughout this saga, the Chimp Crazy documentary team was filming with Haddix. They even filmed at the Union Ridge Wildlife Center in Ohio (where Haddix temporarily kept Tonka) and Haddix’s home in Sunrise Beach.
The day before U.S. Marshals and PETA arrived at the facility in 2021, the crew set up cameras to continue filming while they were barred from the property during the seizure. Haddix says they saw Tonka that day, and she’s frustrated because the filming team isn’t being held to the same level of scrutiny that she is, despite knowing she had hidden Tonka from federal agents.
The film crew debated the pros and cons of revealing that secret in the show. But Goode finally stepped in when Haddix called Cunningham to explain that her vet had suggested Tonka be euthanized for congestive heart failure—a diagnosis PETA said was false, in the series.
“I wasn’t gonna do it. I had no intention because he wasn’t quite there yet,” Haddix said of the suggestion to euthanize Tonka.
According to the narrative depicted in the show, the crew told PETA the truth for fear of Tonka dying. But Haddix — deeply hurt by Cunningham — believes they only did it to create an explosive ending to the series.
“He (Cunningham) was lying to me, saying ‘I love ya, T,’ every time I talked to him,” Haddix said. “That was the real hard thing, that he betrayed me. That’s the part you really don’t get over very well.”
Whatever the reason, the result was that Tonka was seized and taken to Save the Chimps, another sanctuary in Florida.
Diretor Eric Goode meets with Tonia Haddix for the first time.
Haddix has not seen any of the chimps since they were relocated, though she argues she has the right to visit them under the same consent decree for which she’s facing contempt charges. She claims that both the Center for Great Apes and Save the Chimps haven’t allowed her visits or returned her calls.
“I never made a dime off them,” Haddix said of the chimps. “I just love those chimps genuinely and wanted them to stay in the only home they’ve ever known.”
In her eyes, the entire ordeal was “never fair,” with what she describes as bias from the start in court.
PETA is urging federal authorities to prosecute Haddix for allegedly committing perjury in federal court regarding the status of Tonka and for obstruction of justice. The court has also ordered her to pay PETA over $200,000 in attorney's fees and costs—which Haddix said the crew promised to pay.
“Tonia Haddix brazenly defied court orders on camera and made a mockery of the justice system in front of an international audience in order to deprive a chimpanzee of a real life,” Peet said. “PETA is asking the court to hold Haddix and her accomplices in this scheme accountable for flagrantly flouting the law.”
The group filed a motion Oct. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, marking PETA’s sixth motion of contempt against Haddix. As an email subject line from PETA’s Moira Colley stated: “‘Chimp Crazy’ Evidence May Land Docuseries Villain Tonia Haddix in Contempt of Court.”
Then on Nov. 23, another PETA press release stated:
Judge Catherine Perry of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri has just ordered the United States Attorney’s Office to make a charging decision regarding PETA’s allegations of criminal contempt and perjury against Chimp Crazy villain Tonia Haddix by December 16. Furthermore, she has indicated that if the Attorney’s Office declines to prosecute, then her Court will appoint a private attorney to prosecute the criminal charges—meaning that Haddix is guaranteed to face federal criminal charges.
This could spell jail time for Haddix.
While PETA clearly views Haddix as the enemy to be defeated (they call her the “villain” of the HBO docu-series), Cumming said he can empathize with her and the other “chimp moms.”
“I really do understand the deep love,” Cumming told the New York Times in an interview published in Aug. 2024. “But that’s hurting the animal; the animal’s not getting to live the life they were supposed to live.”
The Backyard Safari
“They even said that they’re not gonna stop until I’m dead,” Haddix said of PETA. “That’s pretty harsh comments to make from a not-for-profit organization.”
Indeed, the organization isn't stopping at federal charges. Peet said PETA wants Haddix’s USDA license revoked for her roadside zoo.
Haddix has been running Sunrise Beach Safari with her husband since August 2023. They opened with animals that Jerry had in a mobile petting zoo, but Haddix says she wanted to settle down and thought a safari would be a great, family-oriented attraction at the Lake.
Exotic animal ownership is legal in Missouri, as long as the owner has a permit through the state’s Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Health. Large carnivores, among others, have much stricter requirements, but the state is generally considered one of the friendliest to exotic pet owners.
Currently open Thursday – Sunday, the 27-acre Sunrise Beach Safari offers visitors the chance to feed and pet animals plus have close-up encounters with exotic creatures, like a baby kangaroo or Sydney the sloth. But PETA wants it shut down.
“They are trying to take my license because of me lying to the federal court judge… it has nothing to do with my care,” Haddix said. “I’m deficiency free. I’ve never had a write-up.”
She encourages people to actually go out and see the zoo for themselves to form an opinion.
“They’re going to have to have reasons to shut it down,” Haddix said. “Am I afraid of them coming and doing that? No, because we do what’s right by the animals.”
PETA is discouraging anyone from visiting the safari, in hopes of making it unprofitable, and says the Lake community should pass an ordinance banning the possession of exotic animals.
“There is a woman in your community who is not trained or educated in primate husbandry or welfare, who is keeping highly dangerous animals in her home,” Peet said. “She had a chimpanzee in her basement for three months. She claimed in numerous interviews that she let him out of his cage in the basement, and if that’s true, he could have easily broken out of her home and become a lethal danger to the community.”
According to Peet, the business should not be supported so the alleged abuse and exploitation of animals comes to an end. Haddix claims she could still keep the animals if her license was revoked, though in other cases of licensure revocation, the animals have been transferred to licensed facilities.
“Anyone who watched Chimp Crazy and was moved by the stories of the animals, and who cares about animals in general, should stay as far away from Tonia Haddix’s roadside zoo as possible,” Peet said.
What Tonka Needs
In the middle of this toxic love-triangle is Tonka.
The 33-year-old chimp was born at Working Wildlife and later used in Hollywood films like George of the Jungle and Babe: Pig in the City.
When Tonka was brought to Save the Chimps sanctuary in June 2022, the Florida facility said he was overweight and pale due to a poor diet and confinement. After a quarantine period, Tonka was introduced to two other rescued chimpanzees, Jacob and Cayleb, and they formed a close bond.
Cayleb, Andrea, and Tonka engage in a grooming session.
Now part of a larger family of 17, Tonka enjoys a fulfilling life in a spacious 3-acre habitat, where he participates in social interactions, grooming sessions, and enrichment activities like painting, according to Save the Chimps.
“If he’s happy, that’s all I care about,” Haddix said. “But he’s not happy, and you can tell by his eyes.”
Haddix argues that Tonka is adapting to his new environment out of necessity, not choice. She accuses Save the Chimps of using his situation to gather donations while ignoring his well-being. TMZ reported Save the Chimps’ donations increased by 200% the month after the show aired.
Haddix believes Tonka would still willingly go home with her after two-and-a-half years apart.
"He deserves to have a warm blanket, an ice cream sandwich, and a goodnight kiss every night before bed,” Haddix said.
She says she had hoped to help Tonka live out his days in peace.
But Save the Chimps says he’s finally getting that: “Tonka’s first three decades were filled with loneliness and trauma, but every day, he embraces his new forever home at Save the Chimps with grace and resilience.”
Banning Chimp-Ownership
Following the show’s finale, PETA announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to law enforcement seizing chimpanzees suffering in roadside zoos, private facilities, and the pet trade.
The group is also pushing for a bipartisan bill that would prohibit private ownership of primates in the United States. A similar bill targeting big-cat owners, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, was passed following Tiger King.
“Haddix’s business is an exotic animal broker, and a lot of what she does is sell infant primates into the pet trade to people who have no idea what they’re doing or what they’re getting into,” Peet said. “These are incredibly dangerous animals, even small primates who can easily bite your ear or nose off. Most of these animals end up buried in the backyard with a bullet in their head.”
Introduced in April 2024, the Captive Primate Safety Act would prohibit private ownership, private breeding, and all commercial activity involving primates used in the pet trade. There would be some exceptions for preexisting owners, registered research facilities, and entities transferring primates to compliant holders.
Haddix expressed her willingness to help end the captive breeding of chimpanzees, a position she claims has been clear in her conversations with the animal rights group. But she contends that primates accustomed to captivity should be allowed to live out their lives in familiar environments, rather than being relocated based on what others see as "better" conditions.
“Leave these kids alone and let them die the way that they have lived their whole life,” she argued.
If the act were to pass, regulations for enforcement would be established within 180 days, and current primate owners would need to register their animals with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
While Haddix no longer has Tonka, she still has more than 20 monkeys. She believes PETA is targeting her because she won’t back down, and she intends to continue speaking out.
"I'm not gonna shut up," Haddix said. “I’m going to stand up for what’s right, and they’re sticking their nose into business that doesn’t belong.”
Despite facing possible jail time, Haddix is committed to raising awareness about what she sees as interference. For her, the goal is to ensure that others—and their animals—don’t face the same struggles she has, regardless of her own future with the chimps.
So who's the the hero and who's the villain in this Chimp Crazy love story? That's for viewers to debate.
But at its core, one thing unites all the parties involved: an undeniable devotion to chimps, and especially to a world-famous chimp named Tonka. People will do crazy things for love.
READER POLL: Who's The Villain?
Who's the villain in this Chimp Crazy love story?
