Feds Move to Terminate Chimp Crazy Villain Tonia Haddix’s Animal Welfare License After PETA Pressure

For Immediate Release:
December 13, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA has just learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has filed an administrative lawsuit against Tonia Haddix seeking to terminate her federal Animal Welfare Act license, which allows her to broker and transport infant monkeys and other wild animals and operate her Sunrise Beach, Missouri roadside zoo. The feds’ lawsuit describes Haddix lying to the court about Tonka the chimpanzee’s death—as viewers saw in Chimp Crazy—and alleges that her conduct makes her unfit to keep her license.

PETA sent multiple complaints to the USDA and met with the agency several times urging it to revoke Haddix’s license. An internal USDA email that PETA has received reveals that the agency found Haddix unfit to hold the license as far back as September 27, 2023. PETA urges anyone who wants to help primates like those Haddix sells to support the bipartisan Captive Primate Safety Act, which would ban private ownership, private breeding, and all commercial activity involving primates used in the pet trade.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.