{"id":17940,"date":"2025-07-24T07:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17940\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T07:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:04:07","slug":"chimp-crazy-star-tonia-haddix-jailed-second-ape-found-in-basement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17940\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chimp Crazy’ Star Tonia Haddix Jailed, Second Ape Found in Basement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThree years after Tonia Haddix<\/a> was caught faking the death of her beloved chimpanzee Tonka in a wacky, short-sighted bid to stop the ape from being taken away to a sanctuary, officials raided her Missouri home again to discover the exotic animal broker was secretly stowing another adult chimpanzee in her basement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the latest plot twist in Haddix\u2019s bitter, years-long fight against PETA<\/a>, which has now landed her in jail. Officials arrested the 55-year-old on Saturday after a Missouri judge held her in contempt of court for dodging court orders regarding $224,000 in attorneys\u2019 fees and costs owed to PETA.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoincidentally, the discovery of an unregistered \u201cmature female chimpanzee\u201d hidden in Haddix\u2019s house had no connection to Haddix\u2019s arrest. However, Eastern District of Missouri prosecutors are attempting to use the information as ammo to keep Haddix in custody until her sentencing on August 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April, officials were suspicious Haddix may have acquired a chimpanzee when pretrial service officers made an unannounced visit to Haddix\u2019s home. After Haddix\u2019s husband delayed them from entering the house, according to court records obtained by Rolling Stone, he later told officers that Haddix was downstairs \u201cfeeding monkeys.\u201d (As an exotic animal broker, Haddix often houses a range of animals, including smaller monkeys.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe officers eventually went to the basement and observed that the large cage was empty, but saw what they \u201cbelieved to be fresh dung, as well as flies throughout,\u201d according to a court-submitted affidavit. \u201cThey also observed blankets, an empty Gatorade bottle, and a half-eaten sucker within the cage. Based upon these facts and my experience, I believe that Defendant took steps to move and conceal the mature female chimpanzee from the Pretrial Services Officers during that home visit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter obtaining a search warrant on July 7, officials executed a surprise search on Haddix\u2019s home two days later, where they found the chimpanzee living in the basement enclosure. The ape was safely removed from the house, according to PETA.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike with Tonka \u2014 who starred in the movies George of the Jungle and Buddy, and was discovered alive in June 2022 \u2014 Haddix seemed to keep a tighter lid on her new chimpanzee. Her friend and former podcast partner, Amber Ren\u00e9e Fawn Cunningham, claims to Rolling Stone that she had no idea Haddix had acquired the new pet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel she kept it very private this time because of what happened in the documentary and her other friend telling her psychic,\u201d Cunningham says. \u201cBut a month or so ago [we had] a strange conversation \u2014\u00a0she was planning on being a live streamer on TikTok or something. She wanted to start a new project \u2026 It seemed like she had some new things going on personally, but she didn\u2019t want to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRolling Stone has reached out to Haddix\u2019s last known attorney for comment. Attempts to reach Haddix\u2019s husband ,Jerry Aswegan, who a judge also ordered to be arrested, were not successful.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTonia 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,\u201d PETA Foundation General Counsel Brittany Peet said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone. \u201cThis person clearly won\u2019t stop hurting animals unless and until she\u2019s facing a long stay behind bars herself, and PETA is calling for the court to issue her the harshest possible sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHaddix became a minor celebrity last year following the release of HBO\u2019s four-episode docuseries, <\/a>Chimp Crazy<\/a>. Cameras followed the eccentric but likable firecracker as she went up against PETA, which roped her into a lawsuit over the operation of a controversial chimpanzee facility in 2018. After Haddix failed to make improvements to the roach-infested, feces-covered space, a judge ordered Haddix to turn over seven chimpanzees in her care to a Florida animal sanctuary in June 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Haddix couldn\u2019t bear to part with Tonka, her favorite chimp. When PETA arrived to transport the animals to the sanctuary, Haddix claimed Tonka had died of heart failure. When asked for Tonka\u2019s remains as proof of his death, Haddix claimed they had cremated him.\u00a0Convinced Haddix was lying, PETA teamed up with Tonka\u2019s former Buddy co-star Alan Cumming to offer $20,000 in reward money to anyone who could help prove Tonka was alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more than a year, Haddix kept the lie going. \u201cIt was hard for me,\u201d she previously told Rolling Stone. \u201cI think that\u2019s probably my downfall, because I\u2019m not a good liar. If [someone I knew] asked me the question [about Tonka], I would tip my eyes. I mean, come on, everybody knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEverything came crashing down for Haddix when Tonka was discovered alive in June 2022. The documentary crew following her was secretly backed by Tiger King\u2019s Eric Goode and had turned her in to PETA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tIt all played out in Chimp Crazy<\/a>, which PETA then used to urge the court to pursue perjury charges against Haddix. In March, Haddix pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice. <\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors have pointed to a pre-sentence investigation report that recommended a sentence of up to five years imprisonment. \u201cAs Sir Walter Scott first penned, \u2018Oh what a tangled web we weave\/When first we practice to deceive,\u2019\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a Wednesday letter to the court. \u201cThat well-worn phrase perhaps best sums up where we find ourselves in considering an appropriate sentence for Defendant Haddix.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years after Tonia Haddix was caught faking the death of her beloved chimpanzee Tonka in a wacky,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,19291,19292,19293,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-17940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chimp-crazy","11":"tag-courts-and-crime","12":"tag-peta","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}