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Tonia Haddix, the woman at the center of the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary series “Chimp Crazy,” has been sentenced to 46 months in prison after faking the death of a chimpanzee to avoid turning him over to authorities as ordered.

She pled guilty to two felony counts of perjury and one felony count of obstruction of justice.

“Chimp Crazy,” which aired for four episodes on HBO starting in Aug. 2024, was directed by Eric Goode, one of the directors of Netflix’s Covid-era sensation “Tiger King.” The series follows Haddix, who lied to the animal rights organization PETA and legal authorities about the whereabouts of a chimpanzee, Tonka.

“Chimp Crazy” lays out Haddix’s ownership of the Missouri Primate Foundation, a facility in Festus, Missouri, less than an hour outside St. Louis. The Mpf, amid a lawsuit with PETA over the alleged abuse of the chimpanzees, was ordered to turn the animals over to an animal sanctuary.

Tonia Haddix, the star of HBO’s Chimp Crazy, was sentenced to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice charges for faking the death of her beloved chimpanzee Tonka.

The eccentric exotic animal broker had been hoping for a significantly lighter sentence, just one year instead of the four-and-half-year sentence Missouri District Judge Stephen R. Clark handed down Thursday.

But there was no denying that Haddix had blatantly lied to the court about Tonka’s death after she was filmed bursting into tears while telling...

Tonia Haddix, the main subject of HBO’s 2024 docuseries “Chimp Crazy,” was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on Thursday, according to local St. Louis outlet Fox 2. She was convicted of two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice during an investigation into the alleged death of her celebrity pet chimpanzee, Tonka.

As the HBO series recounts, Haddix owned a chimpanzee compound in Festus, Missouri, where she rented out the apes for special events, birthday parties, television commercials and movies. In 2020, one of her chimps escaped, leading to accusations regarding her treatment of the animals. Animal rights activist group PETA soon stepped in, obtaining a court order to remove the animals from Haddix’s care and into a more suitable ape sanctuary.

Haddix resisted the order for years, but when federal officials eventually came to collect the apes, she claimed that one of her chimpanzees, Tonka, had died before their arrival.

Three years after Tonia Haddix 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.

It’s the latest plot twist in Haddix’s bitter, years-long fight against PETA, 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...

Tonia Haddix is nearly in tears.

It’s been only a few days since officials showed up to the exotic-animal broker’s Missouri home on June 2, after PETA received a tip that Tonka, a Hollywood movie-star chimp in his thirties that Haddix claimed had died in May 2021, was, in fact, alive.

The 52-year-old had blatantly lied to PETA, a judge, and multiple media outlets, saying that Tonka, who starred in George of the Jungle and Buddy alongside Alan Cumming, had died of heart failure. In reality, she had been stashing...

Alan Cumming has announced a 10,000 reward for anyone who has information about his missing “Buddy” co-star, a chimpanzee named Tonka.

The Emmy nominee shared that Tonka is a “good friend” who is missing amid a pending PETA investigation into chimpanzee breeding facility Missouri Primate Foundation in Festus, Missouri. PETA is offering its own 10,000 reward, which Cumming has now matched.

“During the months we filmed together, baby Tonka and I became good friends, playing and grooming each other and just generally larking about,” Cumming said in a statement to Variety. “It’s horrible to think he might in a cage in a dark basement somewhere or have met some other fate, so I’m appealing to whoever knows what has become of him to please come forward claim the reward.”

Cumming starred opposite Tonka in the 1997 comedy “Buddy,” along with Rene Russo. Written and directed by Carolina Thompson, based on a...

Alan Cumming is offering a 10,000 reward for anyone who has information about Tonka, the missing chimpanzee who starred with him and Rene Russo in the 1997 family comedy “Buddy.” Tonka was last seen in a cage at the now-defunct chimpanzee breeding facility Missouri Primate Foundation in Festus, Mo. Chimpanzees were bred at the location and then rented out for movies and parties or sold to private owners. PETA has put up its own 10,000 reward for information about Tonka’s whereabouts, bringing the total reward to 20,000.

“During the months we filmed together, baby Tonka and I became good friends, playing and grooming each other and just generally larking about,” Cumming said in a statement. “It’s horrible to think he might in a cage in a dark basement somewhere or have met some other fate, so I’m appealing to whoever knows what has become of him to please come forward claim the reward.

PETA has “confiscated” three one-year-old lions from Jeff Lowe’s “Tiger King” zoo, which was recently closed. The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Park) ended up in Lowe’s hands following Joe Exotic’s arrest for hiring a hitman to kill Carole Basin.

Yeah, it’s all bananas. Check out “Tiger King” on Netflix if none of those words check out in your rational brain.

The lion confiscation comes as part of PETA’s successful Endangered Species Act lawsuit against Lowe’s former business partner Tim Stark, who transferred the lions to Lowe, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a media announcement.

A court order granting the confiscation was issued on September 15.

A fourth lion had been transferred from Stark to Lowe, the group says, “but PETA recently learned that she died under suspicious circumstances, allegedly in August,” it continued. “The group is investigating her death.

Netflix’s wildly popular unscripted series “Tiger King” is being made into a comic book.

Animal rights group PETA is partnering with TidalWave Productions on the biographical comic, slated to debut in June. In addition to telling the story of Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic made famous by the Netflix series, it will also include information on roadside zoos and animal cruelty involved in using wild animals for photo opportunities, as was the habit of the show’s star, Joe Exotic.

The 22-page comic was written by Michael Frizell and drawn by comic book artist Joe Paradise — yes, you read that right. The two men are also behind comics entitled “Political Power: James Comey” and “Female Force: Stormy Daniels.” Jesse Johnson is credited with drawing the cover art.

Also Read: 'Tiger King's' 25-Day Streak at No. 1 on Netflix Snapped by 'Despicable Me'

“PETA is excited that TidalWave Productions...

Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness has shined a spotlight on animal rights violations through the lens of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka "Joe Exotic." But the docuseries from directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin doesn't tell the full story, according to some featured in the series.

Case in point: Brittany Peet, a PETA Foundation lawyer who testified at Maldonado-Passage's trial and rescued nearly 50 animals from his custody. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Peet says the audience reaction to Joe Exotic specifically and the Netflix doc at large "has been all over ...

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