PETA Statement re: Bond Revoked for Chimp Crazy’s Tonia Haddix

For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

St. Louis –

Bond has just been revoked for Chimp Crazy villain Tonia Haddix after authorities discovered a chimpanzee in her basement in Sunrise Beach, Missouri. The chimpanzee, who has been safely confiscated, was found in the same cramped cell in which Haddix had previously confined a chimpanzee named Tonka in an effort to hide him from PETA, as detailed in the HBO docuseries. Haddix has been in police custody since Saturday due to her companies’ failure to turn over financial records to PETA. She will now remain incarcerated until her sentencing on August 7.

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Senior Director of Captive Wildlife Debbie Metzler:

We now know that at the same moment Tonia Haddix was tearfully apologizing to the judge for the disrespect she’s shown the court, she was likely hiding another chimpanzee in the tiny cell in her basement in violation of the law. Unlike the chimpanzees she deprived of a real life, exercise, and fresh air, Haddix had a choice in whether she ended up behind bars, and PETA trusts that her willful deceit will be taken into account at her sentencing next month.

*Tonia Haddix was booked into jail in Camden County on Saturday after being arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service.*

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 her latest attempt to hide a chimpanzee 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.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in anyway”—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.