Breaking: Tonia Haddix Caught Hiding Another Chimpanzee, Faces Potential Incarceration

For Immediate Release:
July 22, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Authorities announced today that they discovered a chimpanzee in the basement of Chimp Crazy villain Tonia Haddix’s home in Sunrise Beach, Missouri, in the same cramped cell in which she had previously confined a chimpanzee named Tonka in an effort to hide him from PETA, as detailed in the HBO docuseries. The chimpanzee was safely confiscated, and the prosecutor in Haddix’s criminal perjury case today asked the court to revoke Haddix’s bond—which, if granted, will result in her remaining in custody until her sentencing on August 7. Haddix is currently in police custody due to her companies’ failure to turn over financial records to PETA.

Haddix previously pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for lying to a federal judge about Tonka’s whereabouts and disobeying a court order to surrender him to PETA, as per the consent decree reached in PETA’s civil Endangered Species Act case against Haddix. That decree explicitly prohibits her from ever again possessing chimpanzees, making this not only a violation of the conditions of Haddix’s criminal bond, which required her to comply with all outstanding orders in the civil case, but also a violation of the court’s orders in PETA’s case.

“Tonia Haddix has again defied court orders and locked a highly social chimpanzee in a tiny basement cage, without the companionship of other chimpanzees, appropriate care, or even the ability to feel sunlight on her skin,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel Brittany Peet. “This person clearly won’t stop hurting animals unless and until she’s facing a long stay behind bars herself, and PETA is calling for the court to issue her the harshest possible sentence.”

Following the result of Chimp Crazy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated Haddix’s federal license, banning her from legally selling USDA-regulated animals, including primates, and from operating her roadside zoo in Sunrise Beach.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other 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.