A new documentary about a woman’s unusual connection to chimpanzees has been labelled as ‘crazier than Tiger King’.
Released in the United States this week, the series Chimp Crazy has been directed and produced by Eric Goode, who was behind the 2020 Netflix hit Tiger King.
This time around the filmmaker has followed Tonia Haddix, a woman whose love for a chimpanzee ‘spins into a wild game with authorities and an animal rights group’.
The four-part story charts how the nurse from Florida became obsessed with chimps after meeting some at a Missouri breeder and then uprooted her life to work in the chimp habitat.
It’s there that she bonded with Tonka, a former Hollywood star who starred in multiple movies including 1997’s Buddy with Alan Cumming and George of the Jungle with Brendan Fraser and Leslie Mann.
Haddix, who calls herself the ‘Dolly Parton of chimps’ eventually came to see Tonka as her son, even going so far to call the animal the ‘love of my life’.
But after a fellow employee contacted PETA over concerns for the living conditions of the chimps, the animal rights group starts fighting to have the animals removed.
The truly bananas story about Haddix and her beloved primate which then unfolded has been leaving viewers enthralled.
‘Not even 10 minutes into Chimp Crazy and my jaw is on the FLOOR,’ user peachicedt34 posted on X.
‘Seven mins in on Chimp Crazy and this lady admits she’s breast fed a baby chimp… here we go,’ Kris shared.
‘I’m watching episode 1 of Chimp Crazy and I’m livid at the selfishness. How could you think chimps would rather stay indoors caged up 24/7, just to be with you (separated by walls), rather than live in a place with a natural outdoor environment and plenty of space to move freely,’ Lee added.
Others said they found the story ‘disturbing’, while another was left with their ‘blood boiling’.
Alan also appears in the series, explaining in the trailer how: ‘People fall in love with these chimps, but you can’t tame wild things.’
Haddix has also claimed to love Tonka more than her own two human children, Justin and Erica.
When authorities went to remove the primates at Haddix’s property in 2021 after she was found to have violated agreements of a court order, Tonka had vanished.
Haddix claimed he had died of natural causes following a massive stroke and said her husband had cremated the body.
However, the following year a judge found her testimony was not credible, leading to Peta and Alan to launch renewed efforts to find him.
It was eventually discovered Tonka was living in Haddix’s basement and that she had installed a TV and iPad there so he could watch YouTube as she and her husband worked on building him an outdoor enclosure.
After Peta discovered Tonka was alive and were able to examine him, they explained the poor health he was in.
‘He could only take a few steps in any direction, he was not allowed to go outside, he couldn’t feel the sun or the grass beneath his feet, he had no companionship with other chimpanzees — something extremely important to chimpanzees’ welfare — he was overweight, likely from lack of exercise, and he was not receiving proper veterinary care,’ it said in a statement.
He was then moved to Save the Chimp’s sanctuary in Florida in June 2022.
Haddix previously told Rolling Stone she would die if PETA took Tonka from her and ‘if there’s anything that happened to that kid, I feel sorry for them, because they will be sued from here to yonder’.
She still appears to raise exotic animals and last year opened a family-run zoo, Sunrise Beach Safari, near Lake of the Ozarks.
Chimp Crazy is streaming on HBO in the United States.
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