Chimp Crazy star sentenced to 4 years in prison for faking pet chimp's death and hiding it in basement
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, US News, Court, Animal Cruelty, Animals
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: MAX
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, US News, Court, Animal Cruelty, Animals
Chimp Crazy star Tonia Haddix will spend the next 46 months in prison after faking her pet ape's death and hiding it where no one could see in the basement.
Referring to herself as the 'Dolly Parton of chimps', Chimp Crazy followed Haddix after she took over as the head of the Missouri Primate Foundation.
The facility was already embroiled in a lawsuit with PETA over allegations of animal welfare abuses, only for things to get worse as Haddix's relationship with a chimp called Tonka was in the spotlight.
A court order deemed that the chimps needed to be handed over to a sanctuary, but PETA could't find Tonka upon a search of Haddix's home.
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She claimed he'd died and his body had been cremated, but at the conclusion of the second episode of Chimp Crazy, it was revealed Tonka had been alive all along and was in hiding.
"I wanted to keep trying to save Tonka if l could. But then he just died on his own, so there was no saving him," Haddix said, according to court records.
NBC News reported how an unnamed female chimp was found inside a cage in Haddix's basement, with the cage said to be for Tonka.
"While at the time of this writing the Court has not yet made a finding relative to Defendant’s violations of her conditions of release, it is the position of the United States that by possessing and concealing another chimpanzee in the basement of her residence," a memorandum stated.
"Despite this Court’s orders and warnings, Defendant has shown no remorse for her criminal conduct, and has continued to challenge and defy this Court’s authority, and she should face a significant punishment as a result."
Haddix pleaded guilty in March to two counts of perjury and one of obstructing justice and was sentenced for her crimes on Thursday (August 7).
She will spend the next four years behind bars, which will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Brittany Peet, who is PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said: "Now that Tonia Haddix is locked up, she's getting a taste of the suffering she inflicted on animals by imprisoning them in cages and denying them any semblance of a natural life.
"PETA is relieved to see justice done and urges everyone to support the Captive Primate Safety Act, which will keep vulnerable monkeys and apes out of the pet trade and the hands of ruthless dealers like Haddix."
Haddix has previously told the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper that she lied about Tonka to protect the ape from 'the evil clutches of PETA'.