Chimp Crazy (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
Monkey Love
1
Monkey love is totally different
than the way that you have
love for your child.
If it's your natural born child,
it's just natural because you actually,
you know, gave birth to that kid.
But when you adopt a monkey,
the bond is much, much deeper.
Baby, hey, look at you.
What are you doing?
- Hey.
- Hey.
Human children are meant to grow up
and build bonds
with other people in society.
But not chimpanzees.
Look at that little chimp.
Their mother is their whole life.
And that primate feels that way about you,
because you become their mother.
I'm sorry, there is nothing
like holding, loving,
being around a chimp.
Tickle, tickle, tickle,
tickle, tickle, tickle
It's the best thing since peanut butter.
I can't explain it,
'cause it's like something
that you just don't ever feel.
It's so empowering.
They are just like us.
Especially Tonka.
Kiss.
Thank you. He's a good boy, a good boy.
Tonka and I just found each other.
And Tonka loved me
as much as I love Tonka.
It was meant to be, it was just natural.
It's like your love for God.
And I'll do anything to protect
that primate, anything.
A fight over chimpanzees should be over.
The chimpanzee lady
now making national news.
They're gonna have to bring
sheriffs and they're gonna have
to bring everything that they can.
I would give anything
that I have possession-wise up
for that child.
I would give my life for him.
And that's exactly what I did,
to be honest.
There it is.
No, stop it. It's okay.
My dad asked me what I wanted to do
with the rest of my life.
I said, I wanna be the world's
most famous chimpanzee trainer.
- How old were you?
- Seven.
My ancestors were all circus people.
So, I couldn't just have
one chimp, you know?
You had to have at least three,
because then it was an act.
Chimps have a very long life.
They have the same lifespan that we do.
So, I picked the right trade.
I'm still performing with my chimps.
(announcer, indistinct)
Thank you very much!
Chimps are amazing.
They can do just about
anything they want to
because they have our intelligence.
They're calculating,
they watch every move you make.
They learn to read people.
They know what you say.
Every word you say, they understand it.
Somebody's trying to get a beer
on the back of the truck here.
No! Don't do that.
Punch. Punch! Punch!
They are 98.4 human DNA.
So, therefore, they are
our closest living relative.
They're my kids.
And they're always gonna be my kids.
Years ago, I had a baby chimp
born two months premature.
Premature baby chimps
cannot digest formula.
And he wasn't doing good.
He was dying.
But I just had my daughter, Dallas,
so I did what came natural.
He's a baby that needs feeding,
feed it, you know?
I come in one day
and she's got Dallas on one booby
and the chimp on the other.
And I go, "Whoa, what are you doing?"
I really didn't know what I was doing.
And then, to have two of 'em
it's like twins, really.
Next thing you know,
it's in the "Enquirer,"
and then "Star," and oh, my God.
"Baby chimp saved by breastfeeding mum."
One for you and one for you.
He was very gentle. He was very kind.
No, this is the same.
We were like brother and sister so much
that the instant that a boy would like me,
he knew and he would be mean to that boy.
He would throw poop at him.
I can't imagine my life without him.
It would have been very different.
Monkey, monkey, monkey!
To me, they're my life.
They're my life's love.
They were my first love.
I wouldn't want to have my life
without a chimp in it.
I love you.
I love you with everything I got.
Go ahead, you can have your drink.
Yes!
For a long time, it was Connie Casey.
She has chimpanzees.
But it's too bad,
because it's the end of a dynasty.
She lives in Festus, Missouri
and she doesn't want the attention.
Missouri is one of the few states
where you can do pretty much
anything with animals.
There are exotic animal auctions
and very few restrictions
on the kinds of things
that are not allowed elsewhere,
including what Connie Casey
was doing big time,
which was breeding
chimpanzees at her enclave,
Missouri Primate Foundation.
Back in 2010, I was the last journalist
who talked with Connie.
Oh, yeah. Oh, sure.
I've been documenting exotic animal people
for over 15 years.
This is the monkey's closet.
So this is formal wear.
The monkeys have
more clothing than I have.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Are you sure?
- Really, yeah.
I don't have this many shirts.
Ay, que linda.
Exotic animal people
are generally distrustful
of outsiders.
I've been an animal person my entire life,
so gaining access to this community
has been pretty easy for me.
But this time, it's different.
In 2020, I made "Tiger King."
And do you wear these yourself?
I don't wear underwear.
- You don't wear underwear?
- No, free ball it.
"Tiger King" shined a spotlight
on this community
and it wasn't favorable.
That's a brand-new shirt.
And now, people like Connie Casey,
for the most part, don't want
anything to do with me.
- Hey.
- Hey.
I'm on the road to Connie Casey's.
I don't know,
this doesn't look too friendly.
I think I'm gonna go
and think about this for a minute.
So, for this project,
I had to hire a proxy director
to go undercover.
Alright, so listen.
I'll follow you guys.
- Okay.
- But I'll be discreet.
- You won't see
- My car's discreet, okay?
- Okay.
- Alright.
This is our exit.
- See this fence?
- Yep!
- Yep, that's it.
- That's it.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
How are you?
- 3:30, you said?
- Yeah, 3:30.
Hello?
Can you hear me?
Well, I'm Tonia Haddix.
Basically, I'm a nurse
from St. Louis, Missouri.
I came down here
to Missouri Primate Foundation
to help Connie Casey
preserve the chimpanzees
that she still held.
Connie is a legacy.
She has a legacy that is greater
than anybody could ever, ever imagine.
She is a world-renowned chimp person,
basically responsible for three-quarters
of the captive-bred chimps
that are here in
the United States currently.
So, I don't know where your
best view would be to film,
is what I guess I'm asking.
There's Connie now.
No, wait.
I don't want her overwhelmed
with everything.
Hey, you come here.
I know I don't know your name,
and I know that sounds rude.
Connie, I'm Dwayne Cunningham.
It's a pleasure and honor to meet you.
We just thought people
needed to hear your story,
and at the very least we can get it out
in the court of public opinion.
Maybe you have the wrong credentials
for a million things,
but for this, Dwayne,
it's almost like not playing a role at all
'cause you know this world.
You have no idea.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum
I went to Ringling
Brothers Barnum and Bailey
Circus Clown College, class of 1975.
I got to work
with their animals every day.
And then I became involved
in the animal industry
for pretty much my entire life.
Hi, I'm Dr. Wasabi,
and I know what you're thinking.
"Penguins?"
Also, I've had a relationship
with the federal government
over exotic animals.
So, when you called me and said,
"Be the point person, get inside
and see what was going on,"
I mean, that's right up my alley.
- You're gonna look great.
- Oh, thank you.
Once they knew my background,
they weren't skeptical of my presence.
- I don't wanna be on camera.
- Sure.
At that point, it seemed like Connie Casey
was like, exhausted.
Exhausted physically, exhausted mentally.
But Tonia comes in,
and the more I listened to her
the more I thought,
"It's a love story."
She does really good work.
Her stuff looks natural instead
of it looking really crazy.
'Cause I could go crazy,
you guys know that.
Everybody compares me to Dolly.
I don't know why. But they do.
I'm the Dolly Parton of the chimps.
Or I'm the crazy monkey lady. Whatever.
I owned capuchin monkeys
for about 20 years.
I love the capuchins,
but I had always wanted a chimp.
A chimp's even way better than a capuchin.
You can shape them into being you.
So, I was like, "You know what?
"I can afford one and my kids are grown,
so let's try to find a baby chimp."
Connie Casey was offering
chimp encounters.
So, I had made an appointment.
It was the most rewarding
and most amazing experience I ever had.
I wanted to go back.
I was ready to go pay 300 more dollars.
Connie lived the life that
I would love to have lived.
I mean, she's my idol,
and she needed help.
So, I was just gonna volunteer
one day a week.
And so, then it
ended up three or four days,
and then it ended up five days,
and then it ended up
I didn't go home for months.
Then I ended up actually
moving up here on property
25 feet from the chimps.
Chimps are my whole thing.
And thank God I went
to Connie's five years ago,
or I never would have ever known.
That's the only time in my life
that I've ever been happy.
I'm 53 years old, and them five years
was the best five years of my life.
Oh, it's okay.
No?
We've got seven chimpanzees
at the facility,
and each chimp is so individualistic,
just like humans.
Connor is the Hallmark
Greeting Card Chimp.
Born and bred at Connie's facility,
so he's never lived anyplace else.
Then, we have Tammy,
Kerry,
Mikayla, Candy, Crystal.
And then, there's Tonka.
Tonka did a lot of movies
like "George of the Jungle"
and "Babe: Pig in the City."
It's okay
See how as you notice,
they gravitate to what
they feel secure, so
- You're the mom.
- Yeah, I'm the second mom.
Connie's the first mom, but yeah.
I've begged her to please,
please, let's write a book,
to get her legacy down.
Connie's very closed,
but slowly but surely,
I found out a lot about Connie
and the chimps.
She got her first chimp in 1972.
His name was Coco.
He was wild caught from Africa.
We would sit in a circle,
my husband and I, and my three kids,
with little pieces of peanut, or raisin,
or something in our mouth.
And he would just gently
take it out of our mouth
with his lips.
We got a second chimp
about a year and a half later.
Back then, it was easier to get 'em.
Coco and Bridget had their first baby, Bo,
and then they just had multiple babies.
As chimps get a little bit older,
they become harder to handle.
So, people would contact Connie and say,
"Hey, you know, I've got this chimp.
Are you interested in housing it?"
Little did I know that years later
I'd have a house full of chimps.
Give me a kiss, give me some,
give me some.
Give me some kisses.
I first started working
with Connie in 2001.
It was very surreal.
Immediately, I was in love.
And I just knew that
that was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to work there.
Hey, sweetie pie.
Connie was breeding
and selling chimps as pets,
And every year, they would keep one.
That's what they would use
for commercials or movies.
Did either of you stop and think about us?
That's all I've been thinking about, Pops.
Yeah, you too, Chim Chim.
I know of at least four generations,
if not five generations of
Connie's chimps in Hollywood.
What in the hell?
You have to make sure to burp him.
He's just like a little baby.
When she remarried and Mike Casey
came into the picture,
it just kind of grew.
I'd like to thank our special guest,
Kirby from Chimparty, and Mike.
He's the one that came up with the idea
to do the Hollywood stuff
and the Chimparty chimps.
The monkey theme of Brittany Staub's
12th birthday party
just climbed to new heights.
For a fee, Connie Casey,
who owns a company called Chimparty,
will show up at your party
with a baby chimp.
They made a lot of money.
There's three great apes, the gorilla,
the orangutan, and the chimpanzee.
That's how they were able
to build big enclosures.
We hope to become a sanctuary
and kind of a place for them to live.
The most expensive undertaking
is this $350,000 facility.
It's Connie and Mike's dream to
provide this natural habitat.
These are Hallmark
or American Greeting cards
that Connor did when he was a juvenile.
He did a lot of greeting cards
for, like I said,
Hallmark and American Greeting.
Yes.
And a lot of 'em, if you
flip 'em over on the back
Now, this is American Greetings,
so it doesn't say it,
but, like, the Hallmark greeting cards.
I always tell everybody,
if you're gonna buy a chimp card,
be sure it's a Connor card.
These are all American Greetings.
If you turn them over, on the back,
it'll say "Chimparty Chimp,
Festus, Missouri,"
so you know it's one
of our greeting cards.
"Sorry, he was the only
male stripper I could afford.
Happy birthday."
Coming out of a cake.
Actually, coming out of a present.
He's probably the most
notorious chimp for
as far as greeting cards.
He probably did the most.
Snack-wise, they love the licorice.
They love marshmallows.
The drinks is the biggest thing.
I know!
That facility housed
42 chimps at one time.
One time, there was 42 chimps
in that facility.
I'm telling you, it's like potato chips.
You can't just have one,
and you can't just not have one.
Back then, they had plenty of money
to take care of the chimps that they had.
But then, when things
started falling out
You'd have thought
James Dean or Leonardo DiCaprio
had just entered the room.
Women were falling all over each other
trying to get close to Kirby.
He's cute, I want to take him home.
I worked for Chimparty for years.
And after seeing the whole thing,
it was not what I thought it was gonna be.
The seven-year-old chimp
suddenly grabbed a toddler's foot.
I don't believe
Kirby meant any harm by it.
We have never ever had any problem
Oh, you want to say hi, too?
We've never ever had
any problem with Kirby.
But chimps are chimps,
and people are people,
and sometimes in situations,
we can be just as dangerous as they are.
I heard a story about a chimp named Bo.
Mike went into Bo's cage,
and in the blink of an eye,
Bo ran up, bit his nose off,
completely off of his face.
Connie had to go back
into the cage and find the nose.
A couple years later, Bo had died.
I asked, "How?"
And Connie said of natural causes.
But he was very young.
There were older chimps
that weren't doing parties.
They didn't get a lot of attention.
They sit in a cage and do nothing
all day long.
In my work as a journalist,
I've seen a lot.
Disasters, wars, murders.
But nothing prepared me
for walking into Connie Casey's compound
and seeing a ghastly prison
for chimpanzees.
She was operating
the equivalent of a puppy mill.
As there became an awareness
of what was going on
at places such as Chimparty,
efforts were made to cleanse it,
the equivalent of greenwashing.
Connie did finally decide to go nonprofit
and change Chimparty into
Missouri Primate Foundation,
which was a 501(3).
But nothing was different.
I was just overwhelmed with grief.
I felt so sorry for the chimps.
I used to talk to the chimps
like I'm talking to you,
and I would tell them that,
"Someday, you're not gonna
be here anymore."
So, I called PETA.
The animal rights group
People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals
dumping two tons of manure
outside the offices
of Ringling Brothers Barnum
and Bailey Circus last night.
PETA's mission is to protect
animals from abuse,
neglect, and cruelty,
it really is that simple.
For the animals, we will fight!
How does Chrysler sleep at night?!
They're a great inspiration to
so many people and so many activists.
I think I'd fuck a croissant.
PETA's got very good, very potent,
and very, you know,
eye-catching campaigns.
Set them free. Set them free.
Set them free! Set them free!
In water, humans drown,
just as fish suffocate on land.
Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!
And of course, showing people
that activism brings results.
PETA says it finally convinced SeaWorld
to end riding on dolphins.
Ringling Brothers will start phasing
elephants out of its circus acts.
Like any great successful organization,
they are very polarizing.
But if your job is to get
people's attention
and to make change about issues
that you feel need to be changed
by necessity,
you're gonna piss people off.
The Great Ape,
forced to perform on television
and in motion pictures for decades.
Could you live this life?
Thank you very much.
I'm here today because 21 years ago
I made a film and met this little man.
The film was called "Buddy,"
and I played
In 1996, I did a film called "Buddy."
The story of the film is about
a woman who has chimps,
but it's really about the fact that,
you know, you can't tame wild things.
You have to let them be themselves.
You have to let them go.
Do you know where it is?
It's in Joe's ear.
The best thing for me
was I just got to cuddle chimps
all day long.
Tonka was one of the chimps,
and we just sort of fell in love.
Yeah, now that's much better.
Okay, then. Cheer up, big man.
Every morning, I would walk on the set
and I would see him kind of
just so excited to see me,
and looking at his trainer
and look just like, you know,
he couldn't leave his chair,
but he really wanted
and the trainer would go, "Okay,"
and he would run across the set
and leap into my arms.
It was magical.
And in Scotland we have a word
for it called "couthie."
If an animal or a person is couthie,
it means they're kind of, you know,
they kind of come into you like that
in their personality
as well as their physicality.
They kind of that's couthie,
they just want to be like that with you.
And he was, Tonka was couthie.
Tonka was about five at that time,
and I didn't know that then,
but that was kind of
at the end of the time
that you can actually have
a sort of domesticated chimp.
My understanding of what happened to Tonka
after his Hollywood career ended
was that he retired to Palm Springs.
That's what I was told.
And every time I would go to Palm Springs,
'cause I always think of
Palm Springs as like,
old people and gay people.
And then retired chimps
was added to my list.
So, I kind of always expected
to sort of bump into him.
I'd done a few campaigns with PETA.
And then they said to me
that they had found this place in Missouri
where these chimps are being
kept in very poor,
terrible conditions,
and that one of them was Tonka.
And they showed me a picture
of him in this inside cage
looking kinda it was really
Just, it was really upsetting.
Once they've done their thing in showbiz,
and anyone could buy them in,
you know, all these awful roadside zoos
and things like that that you see.
PETA asked me to join them
in this campaign
to try and get those chimps out.
I just hope that Tonka will be
able to have the retirement
that I thought he was going to have.
I knew that PETA was going after Connie
and her chimps.
Thank you.
So I felt like this is an opportunity
to do what I've always wanted to do.
- Who's that?
- It's Candy.
Hi, sweetie.
PETA gave me these
glasses that had a camera,
and they just said,
"Get as much footage as you can."
Hi.
In my mind, I kept telling myself,
"You are betraying somebody that you love.
You know what's gonna happen
after this goes public."
It was I can't even describe how
I hated myself.
I hate the fact that I had
to hurt somebody
to help somebody else.
I thought Connie was a very nice person,
and she would tell me
how much she loved her chimps.
They had made their bedroom into a cage
so that the younger chimps
could stay in there with them.
You got Baba?
And she genuinely seemed to love chimps.
It's just, I guess we have
different definitions of what love is.
Hi.
Here, you wanna do a selfie?
Hi.
The chimpanzees were being held
in virtually barren enclosures,
strewn with trash and their own waste,
and this was frankly unlawful.
So, in 2017, we decided
to proceed with a lawsuit
alleging that these conditions
in which the chimpanzees
were held constituted a violation
of the Endangered Species Act.
The lawsuit that PETA brought
wasn't just about saying,
"We're taking the chimps away."
It was saying,
"We want you to keep these chimps,
"provided you make these changes
in their conditions
and the way they're looked after."
That's their motif.
I could tell you verbatim
how they handle a case,
and every case is a cookie-cutter case.
That's my terminology.
They use the same forms,
they use the same brutality tactics.
They don't want to fix your problems.
They just want to run you out of money
to get your animals from you.
I started working at Connie's
approximately six months
after PETA filed the lawsuit.
I never even drove
one of these until I came here.
I'm from the city,
I don't do this kind of stuff.
PETA did a 365-page report with
a professional veterinarian
saying we have all these
really serious problems.
Shit.
And I decided I'm gonna fix everything
on that 365-page report.
Just 'cause it was old doesn't
mean you can't fix it up.
Watch yourself. 'Cause he's gonna bang.
Connie was very anxious
to spend all this money
to fight to keep her babies.
I said, "Don't worry about it,
they're your kids.
"How can they take your kids?
I mean, this is America.
"You know, the judicial system
will protect us
'cause we haven't done anything
wrong, they're your kids."
You want more snacks?
You got to do more. No, more.
No, not with your foot,
you got to do more snack.
More, good boy. More snack, good boy.
Connie was getting donated old produce.
That was one of PETA's concerns.
Now, they get fresh veggies mainly.
Sugar snap peas,
zucchini squash, little peppers,
eggs for protein.
Primarily all this stuff
is bought from Walmart.
Tonia Haddix would
regularly post improvements
that they were making to the facility
on her Facebook page.
Things like putting up
a new hammock or repainting.
If I was guesstimating
how much I've spent up here
from start to finish, I'd say
half a million dollars.
Absolutely nothing approaching
a half a million dollars' worth of work.
I worked my butt off.
But PETA never came out
to see the improvements,
never came out to see the quality of life
with these chimps,
'cause they don't really
give a shit about the chimps.
All they want is their agenda furthered,
which is to have no animals
in people's care.
Come.
PETA has no empathy for the person
that owns the animals,
or the love that they have
for those animals.
And that's what people
just really can't understand.
I fell in love with those kids.
Come on.
Come on, ready, ready,
ready, ready, ready, ready.
Ready, ready, ready, ready,
ready, ready, ready!
Come on!
It's just like every day,
you wake up into a new world.
What, Candy Cane? What, baby girl?
They don't break your heart.
They're eager to please.
Can you hand me them papers?
Give me those papers,
shove them suckers out there for me.
Thank you, boy.
They don't grow up
and get a mind of their own.
Silly man, silly man!
Can you show me your teeth?
Show me them nasty old teeth
of yours, boy!
They'll be your friend for life.
Nice to meet you, Tonka.
Tonka, can you clap?
Especially Tonka.
Stick out your tongue.
Are you gonna show me that?
Tonka was 38 years old,
and he was my best friend.
You even got a smile on your face, boy.
Them chimps just suck you in.
They suck you in so quick.
Turn around.
You want me to scratch your back?
I may sit out there for hours with them
until 4 or 5 in the morning,
and then I'd go sleep for a few hours,
get up and go clean their cages.
It was my ultimate dream.
You want my shoe again?
Oh my goodness, he's so crazy.
You want them shoes? You're crazy.
Any time they do that noise,
they're happy.
Eventually, I just said to Connie,
"Sign 'em over to me."
And I said,
"I'll take the grunt of the lawsuit."
There is no apparent
reason for Tonia Haddix
to have taken ownership of the chimpanzees
other than to try to moot our lawsuit
and get it kicked out of court
because the owner of
the chimpanzees was not a party.
So, we were forced to join her
into the lawsuit in 2019.
And that certainly kept it interesting.
I'm trying to clean this cage,
so I need to lock him out of this cage.
But I was gonna lock
this door and this door
because he's strong.
Okay, that's a battle lost.
Out of all the chimps,
I would not want to encounter him.
Huh, boy? Huh, Kerry?
You see the power of Kerry
in this interaction.
See, just like right there,
tried to grab me.
But see, I'm aware of that,
so I know what to do with him.
Kerry is the one who escaped right here
on Highway CC outside Festus.
Oh, my God, he's getting in
Oh, he's robbing that Oh, my God.
Tonight on the Fox Files,
an escaped chimpanzee
in Festus. It shocked people
You can see the animal
try to get into a car.
After Tonia Haddix became the legal owner
of the chimpanzees,
there were issues still arising
at the Missouri Primate Foundation,
because she is not qualified
to care for chimpanzees.
She does not have any formal training.
She's simply someone
who likes chimpanzees.
I have a rule of thumb.
I never walk away from a cage
unless I've got a lock on it.
Period, end of story.
'Cause it'd be so easy to get called away,
and then the locks be off,
and there's no safeties on these doors.
So, then you'd have loose chimps.
A controversial primate facility in Festus
is under fire once again.
A male and female chimpanzee
escaped early Sunday afternoon.
It appears there was
an unsecured lock on the cages.
During the course of this case,
chimpanzees escaped
from the facility twice.
Remarkably, Tonia Haddix's response
was that PETA might have
sent someone there
to unlock the cages.
That's how delusional she is.
Tonia's deadline to have all
the improvements completed
came and went.
She never formally presented
any of the changes
that she made to the Festus facility.
It simply didn't happen.
So, we filed several motions to transfer
all seven of the chimpanzees
to an accredited sanctuary.
All of these animals
have been captive-bred,
so they can't just be simply
released into the wild.
The best we can do
is to put them in a setting
that approximates
their natural environment.
You know, she had her chance,
and she blew it.
That's really where
it all went wrong for her.
Alright, Tonia.
Morning, we're at the federal
courthouse here in St. Louis.
We have a contempt hearing this morning.
- Right.
- How's your head?
What are you feeling?
- And you just go.
- Okay.
Alright? And you smell great, by the way.
Thank you.
My eyes are
I was up all night with the attorney.
Okay. Whenever you're ready.
Well, I was up all night
with the attorneys.
They worked all hours.
We put five more motions in this morning.
Best case scenario,
PETA can't take the chimps,
and we can try to fight this
fair and square.
Worst case scenario would be
that I end up in jail today
until they come get the chimps.
I'm not saying I'm not a little nervous,
'cause who wouldn't be?
But the fact of it is, is I stand up
for what I believe in.
And I believe in those chimps,
so that's all I care about
at this point, truthfully.
The animal rights group PETA
successfully won a court order
to have the Festus chimps
moved to an accredited
animal sanctuary in Florida.
A new court order
says all the chimps must go.
Cameras are prohibited
from being on the Festus
property during this seizure.
The judge found
Tonia Haddix in civil contempt,
ultimately ordering that
all seven of the chimpanzees
be transferred to accredited sanctuaries.
I love these chimps
more than anything in the world,
and I mean more than anything.
More than my kids, more than anything.
What I'm worried about is
do they think that we abandon them?
You know, they have a lot of huge
intellectual statuses.
So how do we know what they're gonna feel?
And I know they're gonna grieve.
I know they're gonna have issues.
I appreciate it, Tonia, thank you.
I'll be in touch when it's gonna be on.
- It might not be tonight.
- Okay. Okay.
That'll be great, thank you.
I'm not giving up,
I can tell you that much.
I'm not. 'Til the fat lady sings,
I'm gonna try to beat PETA.
There he is.
There's the little fucker now.
The United States Marshal Service will be
present just to ensure a smooth transfer.
We're hopeful that
there will be no hiccups.
We're looking to finally
just move these chimpanzees
to this professional
sanctuary environment.
- Okay, thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- It was good seeing you.
- Good seeing you.
I'll let you know when it's gonna run.
Okay.
The good news is they didn't
take her away in handcuffs.
Although, the judge said
that Tonia has to stay
two miles away from the compound
as the move takes place.
We are just prepping the chimps
for PETA to come on property
to take the possession of the chimps
starting 8 a.m. tomorrow.
It's gonna be the toughest thing
we've ever gone through.
For me, at least.
Yeah.
Candy Cane's joining in
on the conversation.
She wants to say, "PETA,
you're stupid for taking us."
PETA said that they can't wait to get them
transferred to a professional sanctuary.
I have to be off the property at 8 p.m.,
so, per PETA's orders, believe it or not.
And
So, we'll have to shut out
the lights at 8:00, but
we're gonna spend as much time
with them as we can.
You know what,
we should get Happy Meals today.
That's their favorite.
Yeah, they would love 'em.
They love chicken nugget Happy Meals.
I mean, love them.
One more.
You like them fries?
If you want 'em, have 'em
You get to know each chimp,
and that's the sad part,
is that they're taking them
from the only home they know
with the caregivers that
know them their whole life
and know what they're about, and
putting 'em in a situation
that they won't even know
nothing about 'em.
See, Candy don't like me crying.
And Connor don't. They know.
They know.
They know I love them more
than anything in this world.
They know.
I've spent many years with these guys,
taking care of them every day,
even whenever I've been sick.
They know.
Huh, Candy Cane?
We can take you no further
than right here,
the front of Connie Casey's property
on State Road CC in Festus.
The U.S. Marshals are here,
accompanied by local law enforcement
to watch over the seizure of chimpanzees.
We're trespassing?
Yeah, you can't come on property
until we're done.
Yeah, that'd be technically
off the property.
Okay.
- So, nothing in here though?
- No.
But they would be darting in here?
Yes.
Yeah.
The chimps are there,
and the chimps are on
the other side there.
Here comes somebody.
I hated the fact that
they had to be scared at all,
because they had to dart them
all one by one
and put them in the truck.
But I'm very happy.
Do you have any regrets?
I wish I had done it sooner.
That's all.
The rescue went smoothly,
and Tonia Haddix didn't show up.
But there was one major problem.
There was a chimpanzee missing.
The fight over Festus chimpanzees
should be over,
except for new revelations.
The chimpanzee lady
now making national news.
A movie star chimp named Tonka
and its disappearance.
It all has the makings
of a Hollywood plot,
but no, this is real life.
People fall in love with these chimps.
And you know, when you're in love,
your brain is out of control.
There's chemicals and hormones
and things happening to you
that makes you irrational.
Once I had chimps,
there was no way I could do without one.
I'll do anything and everything
to keep them kids.
I've got to take every chance I've got,
'cause you know what?
We might get lucky.
Monkey love is totally different
than the way that you have
love for your child.
If it's your natural born child,
it's just natural because you actually,
you know, gave birth to that kid.
But when you adopt a monkey,
the bond is much, much deeper.
Baby, hey, look at you.
What are you doing?
- Hey.
- Hey.
Human children are meant to grow up
and build bonds
with other people in society.
But not chimpanzees.
Look at that little chimp.
Their mother is their whole life.
And that primate feels that way about you,
because you become their mother.
I'm sorry, there is nothing
like holding, loving,
being around a chimp.
Tickle, tickle, tickle,
tickle, tickle, tickle
It's the best thing since peanut butter.
I can't explain it,
'cause it's like something
that you just don't ever feel.
It's so empowering.
They are just like us.
Especially Tonka.
Kiss.
Thank you. He's a good boy, a good boy.
Tonka and I just found each other.
And Tonka loved me
as much as I love Tonka.
It was meant to be, it was just natural.
It's like your love for God.
And I'll do anything to protect
that primate, anything.
A fight over chimpanzees should be over.
The chimpanzee lady
now making national news.
They're gonna have to bring
sheriffs and they're gonna have
to bring everything that they can.
I would give anything
that I have possession-wise up
for that child.
I would give my life for him.
And that's exactly what I did,
to be honest.
There it is.
No, stop it. It's okay.
My dad asked me what I wanted to do
with the rest of my life.
I said, I wanna be the world's
most famous chimpanzee trainer.
- How old were you?
- Seven.
My ancestors were all circus people.
So, I couldn't just have
one chimp, you know?
You had to have at least three,
because then it was an act.
Chimps have a very long life.
They have the same lifespan that we do.
So, I picked the right trade.
I'm still performing with my chimps.
(announcer, indistinct)
Thank you very much!
Chimps are amazing.
They can do just about
anything they want to
because they have our intelligence.
They're calculating,
they watch every move you make.
They learn to read people.
They know what you say.
Every word you say, they understand it.
Somebody's trying to get a beer
on the back of the truck here.
No! Don't do that.
Punch. Punch! Punch!
They are 98.4 human DNA.
So, therefore, they are
our closest living relative.
They're my kids.
And they're always gonna be my kids.
Years ago, I had a baby chimp
born two months premature.
Premature baby chimps
cannot digest formula.
And he wasn't doing good.
He was dying.
But I just had my daughter, Dallas,
so I did what came natural.
He's a baby that needs feeding,
feed it, you know?
I come in one day
and she's got Dallas on one booby
and the chimp on the other.
And I go, "Whoa, what are you doing?"
I really didn't know what I was doing.
And then, to have two of 'em
it's like twins, really.
Next thing you know,
it's in the "Enquirer,"
and then "Star," and oh, my God.
"Baby chimp saved by breastfeeding mum."
One for you and one for you.
He was very gentle. He was very kind.
No, this is the same.
We were like brother and sister so much
that the instant that a boy would like me,
he knew and he would be mean to that boy.
He would throw poop at him.
I can't imagine my life without him.
It would have been very different.
Monkey, monkey, monkey!
To me, they're my life.
They're my life's love.
They were my first love.
I wouldn't want to have my life
without a chimp in it.
I love you.
I love you with everything I got.
Go ahead, you can have your drink.
Yes!
For a long time, it was Connie Casey.
She has chimpanzees.
But it's too bad,
because it's the end of a dynasty.
She lives in Festus, Missouri
and she doesn't want the attention.
Missouri is one of the few states
where you can do pretty much
anything with animals.
There are exotic animal auctions
and very few restrictions
on the kinds of things
that are not allowed elsewhere,
including what Connie Casey
was doing big time,
which was breeding
chimpanzees at her enclave,
Missouri Primate Foundation.
Back in 2010, I was the last journalist
who talked with Connie.
Oh, yeah. Oh, sure.
I've been documenting exotic animal people
for over 15 years.
This is the monkey's closet.
So this is formal wear.
The monkeys have
more clothing than I have.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Are you sure?
- Really, yeah.
I don't have this many shirts.
Ay, que linda.
Exotic animal people
are generally distrustful
of outsiders.
I've been an animal person my entire life,
so gaining access to this community
has been pretty easy for me.
But this time, it's different.
In 2020, I made "Tiger King."
And do you wear these yourself?
I don't wear underwear.
- You don't wear underwear?
- No, free ball it.
"Tiger King" shined a spotlight
on this community
and it wasn't favorable.
That's a brand-new shirt.
And now, people like Connie Casey,
for the most part, don't want
anything to do with me.
- Hey.
- Hey.
I'm on the road to Connie Casey's.
I don't know,
this doesn't look too friendly.
I think I'm gonna go
and think about this for a minute.
So, for this project,
I had to hire a proxy director
to go undercover.
Alright, so listen.
I'll follow you guys.
- Okay.
- But I'll be discreet.
- You won't see
- My car's discreet, okay?
- Okay.
- Alright.
This is our exit.
- See this fence?
- Yep!
- Yep, that's it.
- That's it.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
How are you?
- 3:30, you said?
- Yeah, 3:30.
Hello?
Can you hear me?
Well, I'm Tonia Haddix.
Basically, I'm a nurse
from St. Louis, Missouri.
I came down here
to Missouri Primate Foundation
to help Connie Casey
preserve the chimpanzees
that she still held.
Connie is a legacy.
She has a legacy that is greater
than anybody could ever, ever imagine.
She is a world-renowned chimp person,
basically responsible for three-quarters
of the captive-bred chimps
that are here in
the United States currently.
So, I don't know where your
best view would be to film,
is what I guess I'm asking.
There's Connie now.
No, wait.
I don't want her overwhelmed
with everything.
Hey, you come here.
I know I don't know your name,
and I know that sounds rude.
Connie, I'm Dwayne Cunningham.
It's a pleasure and honor to meet you.
We just thought people
needed to hear your story,
and at the very least we can get it out
in the court of public opinion.
Maybe you have the wrong credentials
for a million things,
but for this, Dwayne,
it's almost like not playing a role at all
'cause you know this world.
You have no idea.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum
I went to Ringling
Brothers Barnum and Bailey
Circus Clown College, class of 1975.
I got to work
with their animals every day.
And then I became involved
in the animal industry
for pretty much my entire life.
Hi, I'm Dr. Wasabi,
and I know what you're thinking.
"Penguins?"
Also, I've had a relationship
with the federal government
over exotic animals.
So, when you called me and said,
"Be the point person, get inside
and see what was going on,"
I mean, that's right up my alley.
- You're gonna look great.
- Oh, thank you.
Once they knew my background,
they weren't skeptical of my presence.
- I don't wanna be on camera.
- Sure.
At that point, it seemed like Connie Casey
was like, exhausted.
Exhausted physically, exhausted mentally.
But Tonia comes in,
and the more I listened to her
the more I thought,
"It's a love story."
She does really good work.
Her stuff looks natural instead
of it looking really crazy.
'Cause I could go crazy,
you guys know that.
Everybody compares me to Dolly.
I don't know why. But they do.
I'm the Dolly Parton of the chimps.
Or I'm the crazy monkey lady. Whatever.
I owned capuchin monkeys
for about 20 years.
I love the capuchins,
but I had always wanted a chimp.
A chimp's even way better than a capuchin.
You can shape them into being you.
So, I was like, "You know what?
"I can afford one and my kids are grown,
so let's try to find a baby chimp."
Connie Casey was offering
chimp encounters.
So, I had made an appointment.
It was the most rewarding
and most amazing experience I ever had.
I wanted to go back.
I was ready to go pay 300 more dollars.
Connie lived the life that
I would love to have lived.
I mean, she's my idol,
and she needed help.
So, I was just gonna volunteer
one day a week.
And so, then it
ended up three or four days,
and then it ended up five days,
and then it ended up
I didn't go home for months.
Then I ended up actually
moving up here on property
25 feet from the chimps.
Chimps are my whole thing.
And thank God I went
to Connie's five years ago,
or I never would have ever known.
That's the only time in my life
that I've ever been happy.
I'm 53 years old, and them five years
was the best five years of my life.
Oh, it's okay.
No?
We've got seven chimpanzees
at the facility,
and each chimp is so individualistic,
just like humans.
Connor is the Hallmark
Greeting Card Chimp.
Born and bred at Connie's facility,
so he's never lived anyplace else.
Then, we have Tammy,
Kerry,
Mikayla, Candy, Crystal.
And then, there's Tonka.
Tonka did a lot of movies
like "George of the Jungle"
and "Babe: Pig in the City."
It's okay
See how as you notice,
they gravitate to what
they feel secure, so
- You're the mom.
- Yeah, I'm the second mom.
Connie's the first mom, but yeah.
I've begged her to please,
please, let's write a book,
to get her legacy down.
Connie's very closed,
but slowly but surely,
I found out a lot about Connie
and the chimps.
She got her first chimp in 1972.
His name was Coco.
He was wild caught from Africa.
We would sit in a circle,
my husband and I, and my three kids,
with little pieces of peanut, or raisin,
or something in our mouth.
And he would just gently
take it out of our mouth
with his lips.
We got a second chimp
about a year and a half later.
Back then, it was easier to get 'em.
Coco and Bridget had their first baby, Bo,
and then they just had multiple babies.
As chimps get a little bit older,
they become harder to handle.
So, people would contact Connie and say,
"Hey, you know, I've got this chimp.
Are you interested in housing it?"
Little did I know that years later
I'd have a house full of chimps.
Give me a kiss, give me some,
give me some.
Give me some kisses.
I first started working
with Connie in 2001.
It was very surreal.
Immediately, I was in love.
And I just knew that
that was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to work there.
Hey, sweetie pie.
Connie was breeding
and selling chimps as pets,
And every year, they would keep one.
That's what they would use
for commercials or movies.
Did either of you stop and think about us?
That's all I've been thinking about, Pops.
Yeah, you too, Chim Chim.
I know of at least four generations,
if not five generations of
Connie's chimps in Hollywood.
What in the hell?
You have to make sure to burp him.
He's just like a little baby.
When she remarried and Mike Casey
came into the picture,
it just kind of grew.
I'd like to thank our special guest,
Kirby from Chimparty, and Mike.
He's the one that came up with the idea
to do the Hollywood stuff
and the Chimparty chimps.
The monkey theme of Brittany Staub's
12th birthday party
just climbed to new heights.
For a fee, Connie Casey,
who owns a company called Chimparty,
will show up at your party
with a baby chimp.
They made a lot of money.
There's three great apes, the gorilla,
the orangutan, and the chimpanzee.
That's how they were able
to build big enclosures.
We hope to become a sanctuary
and kind of a place for them to live.
The most expensive undertaking
is this $350,000 facility.
It's Connie and Mike's dream to
provide this natural habitat.
These are Hallmark
or American Greeting cards
that Connor did when he was a juvenile.
He did a lot of greeting cards
for, like I said,
Hallmark and American Greeting.
Yes.
And a lot of 'em, if you
flip 'em over on the back
Now, this is American Greetings,
so it doesn't say it,
but, like, the Hallmark greeting cards.
I always tell everybody,
if you're gonna buy a chimp card,
be sure it's a Connor card.
These are all American Greetings.
If you turn them over, on the back,
it'll say "Chimparty Chimp,
Festus, Missouri,"
so you know it's one
of our greeting cards.
"Sorry, he was the only
male stripper I could afford.
Happy birthday."
Coming out of a cake.
Actually, coming out of a present.
He's probably the most
notorious chimp for
as far as greeting cards.
He probably did the most.
Snack-wise, they love the licorice.
They love marshmallows.
The drinks is the biggest thing.
I know!
That facility housed
42 chimps at one time.
One time, there was 42 chimps
in that facility.
I'm telling you, it's like potato chips.
You can't just have one,
and you can't just not have one.
Back then, they had plenty of money
to take care of the chimps that they had.
But then, when things
started falling out
You'd have thought
James Dean or Leonardo DiCaprio
had just entered the room.
Women were falling all over each other
trying to get close to Kirby.
He's cute, I want to take him home.
I worked for Chimparty for years.
And after seeing the whole thing,
it was not what I thought it was gonna be.
The seven-year-old chimp
suddenly grabbed a toddler's foot.
I don't believe
Kirby meant any harm by it.
We have never ever had any problem
Oh, you want to say hi, too?
We've never ever had
any problem with Kirby.
But chimps are chimps,
and people are people,
and sometimes in situations,
we can be just as dangerous as they are.
I heard a story about a chimp named Bo.
Mike went into Bo's cage,
and in the blink of an eye,
Bo ran up, bit his nose off,
completely off of his face.
Connie had to go back
into the cage and find the nose.
A couple years later, Bo had died.
I asked, "How?"
And Connie said of natural causes.
But he was very young.
There were older chimps
that weren't doing parties.
They didn't get a lot of attention.
They sit in a cage and do nothing
all day long.
In my work as a journalist,
I've seen a lot.
Disasters, wars, murders.
But nothing prepared me
for walking into Connie Casey's compound
and seeing a ghastly prison
for chimpanzees.
She was operating
the equivalent of a puppy mill.
As there became an awareness
of what was going on
at places such as Chimparty,
efforts were made to cleanse it,
the equivalent of greenwashing.
Connie did finally decide to go nonprofit
and change Chimparty into
Missouri Primate Foundation,
which was a 501(3).
But nothing was different.
I was just overwhelmed with grief.
I felt so sorry for the chimps.
I used to talk to the chimps
like I'm talking to you,
and I would tell them that,
"Someday, you're not gonna
be here anymore."
So, I called PETA.
The animal rights group
People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals
dumping two tons of manure
outside the offices
of Ringling Brothers Barnum
and Bailey Circus last night.
PETA's mission is to protect
animals from abuse,
neglect, and cruelty,
it really is that simple.
For the animals, we will fight!
How does Chrysler sleep at night?!
They're a great inspiration to
so many people and so many activists.
I think I'd fuck a croissant.
PETA's got very good, very potent,
and very, you know,
eye-catching campaigns.
Set them free. Set them free.
Set them free! Set them free!
In water, humans drown,
just as fish suffocate on land.
Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!
And of course, showing people
that activism brings results.
PETA says it finally convinced SeaWorld
to end riding on dolphins.
Ringling Brothers will start phasing
elephants out of its circus acts.
Like any great successful organization,
they are very polarizing.
But if your job is to get
people's attention
and to make change about issues
that you feel need to be changed
by necessity,
you're gonna piss people off.
The Great Ape,
forced to perform on television
and in motion pictures for decades.
Could you live this life?
Thank you very much.
I'm here today because 21 years ago
I made a film and met this little man.
The film was called "Buddy,"
and I played
In 1996, I did a film called "Buddy."
The story of the film is about
a woman who has chimps,
but it's really about the fact that,
you know, you can't tame wild things.
You have to let them be themselves.
You have to let them go.
Do you know where it is?
It's in Joe's ear.
The best thing for me
was I just got to cuddle chimps
all day long.
Tonka was one of the chimps,
and we just sort of fell in love.
Yeah, now that's much better.
Okay, then. Cheer up, big man.
Every morning, I would walk on the set
and I would see him kind of
just so excited to see me,
and looking at his trainer
and look just like, you know,
he couldn't leave his chair,
but he really wanted
and the trainer would go, "Okay,"
and he would run across the set
and leap into my arms.
It was magical.
And in Scotland we have a word
for it called "couthie."
If an animal or a person is couthie,
it means they're kind of, you know,
they kind of come into you like that
in their personality
as well as their physicality.
They kind of that's couthie,
they just want to be like that with you.
And he was, Tonka was couthie.
Tonka was about five at that time,
and I didn't know that then,
but that was kind of
at the end of the time
that you can actually have
a sort of domesticated chimp.
My understanding of what happened to Tonka
after his Hollywood career ended
was that he retired to Palm Springs.
That's what I was told.
And every time I would go to Palm Springs,
'cause I always think of
Palm Springs as like,
old people and gay people.
And then retired chimps
was added to my list.
So, I kind of always expected
to sort of bump into him.
I'd done a few campaigns with PETA.
And then they said to me
that they had found this place in Missouri
where these chimps are being
kept in very poor,
terrible conditions,
and that one of them was Tonka.
And they showed me a picture
of him in this inside cage
looking kinda it was really
Just, it was really upsetting.
Once they've done their thing in showbiz,
and anyone could buy them in,
you know, all these awful roadside zoos
and things like that that you see.
PETA asked me to join them
in this campaign
to try and get those chimps out.
I just hope that Tonka will be
able to have the retirement
that I thought he was going to have.
I knew that PETA was going after Connie
and her chimps.
Thank you.
So I felt like this is an opportunity
to do what I've always wanted to do.
- Who's that?
- It's Candy.
Hi, sweetie.
PETA gave me these
glasses that had a camera,
and they just said,
"Get as much footage as you can."
Hi.
In my mind, I kept telling myself,
"You are betraying somebody that you love.
You know what's gonna happen
after this goes public."
It was I can't even describe how
I hated myself.
I hate the fact that I had
to hurt somebody
to help somebody else.
I thought Connie was a very nice person,
and she would tell me
how much she loved her chimps.
They had made their bedroom into a cage
so that the younger chimps
could stay in there with them.
You got Baba?
And she genuinely seemed to love chimps.
It's just, I guess we have
different definitions of what love is.
Hi.
Here, you wanna do a selfie?
Hi.
The chimpanzees were being held
in virtually barren enclosures,
strewn with trash and their own waste,
and this was frankly unlawful.
So, in 2017, we decided
to proceed with a lawsuit
alleging that these conditions
in which the chimpanzees
were held constituted a violation
of the Endangered Species Act.
The lawsuit that PETA brought
wasn't just about saying,
"We're taking the chimps away."
It was saying,
"We want you to keep these chimps,
"provided you make these changes
in their conditions
and the way they're looked after."
That's their motif.
I could tell you verbatim
how they handle a case,
and every case is a cookie-cutter case.
That's my terminology.
They use the same forms,
they use the same brutality tactics.
They don't want to fix your problems.
They just want to run you out of money
to get your animals from you.
I started working at Connie's
approximately six months
after PETA filed the lawsuit.
I never even drove
one of these until I came here.
I'm from the city,
I don't do this kind of stuff.
PETA did a 365-page report with
a professional veterinarian
saying we have all these
really serious problems.
Shit.
And I decided I'm gonna fix everything
on that 365-page report.
Just 'cause it was old doesn't
mean you can't fix it up.
Watch yourself. 'Cause he's gonna bang.
Connie was very anxious
to spend all this money
to fight to keep her babies.
I said, "Don't worry about it,
they're your kids.
"How can they take your kids?
I mean, this is America.
"You know, the judicial system
will protect us
'cause we haven't done anything
wrong, they're your kids."
You want more snacks?
You got to do more. No, more.
No, not with your foot,
you got to do more snack.
More, good boy. More snack, good boy.
Connie was getting donated old produce.
That was one of PETA's concerns.
Now, they get fresh veggies mainly.
Sugar snap peas,
zucchini squash, little peppers,
eggs for protein.
Primarily all this stuff
is bought from Walmart.
Tonia Haddix would
regularly post improvements
that they were making to the facility
on her Facebook page.
Things like putting up
a new hammock or repainting.
If I was guesstimating
how much I've spent up here
from start to finish, I'd say
half a million dollars.
Absolutely nothing approaching
a half a million dollars' worth of work.
I worked my butt off.
But PETA never came out
to see the improvements,
never came out to see the quality of life
with these chimps,
'cause they don't really
give a shit about the chimps.
All they want is their agenda furthered,
which is to have no animals
in people's care.
Come.
PETA has no empathy for the person
that owns the animals,
or the love that they have
for those animals.
And that's what people
just really can't understand.
I fell in love with those kids.
Come on.
Come on, ready, ready,
ready, ready, ready, ready.
Ready, ready, ready, ready,
ready, ready, ready!
Come on!
It's just like every day,
you wake up into a new world.
What, Candy Cane? What, baby girl?
They don't break your heart.
They're eager to please.
Can you hand me them papers?
Give me those papers,
shove them suckers out there for me.
Thank you, boy.
They don't grow up
and get a mind of their own.
Silly man, silly man!
Can you show me your teeth?
Show me them nasty old teeth
of yours, boy!
They'll be your friend for life.
Nice to meet you, Tonka.
Tonka, can you clap?
Especially Tonka.
Stick out your tongue.
Are you gonna show me that?
Tonka was 38 years old,
and he was my best friend.
You even got a smile on your face, boy.
Them chimps just suck you in.
They suck you in so quick.
Turn around.
You want me to scratch your back?
I may sit out there for hours with them
until 4 or 5 in the morning,
and then I'd go sleep for a few hours,
get up and go clean their cages.
It was my ultimate dream.
You want my shoe again?
Oh my goodness, he's so crazy.
You want them shoes? You're crazy.
Any time they do that noise,
they're happy.
Eventually, I just said to Connie,
"Sign 'em over to me."
And I said,
"I'll take the grunt of the lawsuit."
There is no apparent
reason for Tonia Haddix
to have taken ownership of the chimpanzees
other than to try to moot our lawsuit
and get it kicked out of court
because the owner of
the chimpanzees was not a party.
So, we were forced to join her
into the lawsuit in 2019.
And that certainly kept it interesting.
I'm trying to clean this cage,
so I need to lock him out of this cage.
But I was gonna lock
this door and this door
because he's strong.
Okay, that's a battle lost.
Out of all the chimps,
I would not want to encounter him.
Huh, boy? Huh, Kerry?
You see the power of Kerry
in this interaction.
See, just like right there,
tried to grab me.
But see, I'm aware of that,
so I know what to do with him.
Kerry is the one who escaped right here
on Highway CC outside Festus.
Oh, my God, he's getting in
Oh, he's robbing that Oh, my God.
Tonight on the Fox Files,
an escaped chimpanzee
in Festus. It shocked people
You can see the animal
try to get into a car.
After Tonia Haddix became the legal owner
of the chimpanzees,
there were issues still arising
at the Missouri Primate Foundation,
because she is not qualified
to care for chimpanzees.
She does not have any formal training.
She's simply someone
who likes chimpanzees.
I have a rule of thumb.
I never walk away from a cage
unless I've got a lock on it.
Period, end of story.
'Cause it'd be so easy to get called away,
and then the locks be off,
and there's no safeties on these doors.
So, then you'd have loose chimps.
A controversial primate facility in Festus
is under fire once again.
A male and female chimpanzee
escaped early Sunday afternoon.
It appears there was
an unsecured lock on the cages.
During the course of this case,
chimpanzees escaped
from the facility twice.
Remarkably, Tonia Haddix's response
was that PETA might have
sent someone there
to unlock the cages.
That's how delusional she is.
Tonia's deadline to have all
the improvements completed
came and went.
She never formally presented
any of the changes
that she made to the Festus facility.
It simply didn't happen.
So, we filed several motions to transfer
all seven of the chimpanzees
to an accredited sanctuary.
All of these animals
have been captive-bred,
so they can't just be simply
released into the wild.
The best we can do
is to put them in a setting
that approximates
their natural environment.
You know, she had her chance,
and she blew it.
That's really where
it all went wrong for her.
Alright, Tonia.
Morning, we're at the federal
courthouse here in St. Louis.
We have a contempt hearing this morning.
- Right.
- How's your head?
What are you feeling?
- And you just go.
- Okay.
Alright? And you smell great, by the way.
Thank you.
My eyes are
I was up all night with the attorney.
Okay. Whenever you're ready.
Well, I was up all night
with the attorneys.
They worked all hours.
We put five more motions in this morning.
Best case scenario,
PETA can't take the chimps,
and we can try to fight this
fair and square.
Worst case scenario would be
that I end up in jail today
until they come get the chimps.
I'm not saying I'm not a little nervous,
'cause who wouldn't be?
But the fact of it is, is I stand up
for what I believe in.
And I believe in those chimps,
so that's all I care about
at this point, truthfully.
The animal rights group PETA
successfully won a court order
to have the Festus chimps
moved to an accredited
animal sanctuary in Florida.
A new court order
says all the chimps must go.
Cameras are prohibited
from being on the Festus
property during this seizure.
The judge found
Tonia Haddix in civil contempt,
ultimately ordering that
all seven of the chimpanzees
be transferred to accredited sanctuaries.
I love these chimps
more than anything in the world,
and I mean more than anything.
More than my kids, more than anything.
What I'm worried about is
do they think that we abandon them?
You know, they have a lot of huge
intellectual statuses.
So how do we know what they're gonna feel?
And I know they're gonna grieve.
I know they're gonna have issues.
I appreciate it, Tonia, thank you.
I'll be in touch when it's gonna be on.
- It might not be tonight.
- Okay. Okay.
That'll be great, thank you.
I'm not giving up,
I can tell you that much.
I'm not. 'Til the fat lady sings,
I'm gonna try to beat PETA.
There he is.
There's the little fucker now.
The United States Marshal Service will be
present just to ensure a smooth transfer.
We're hopeful that
there will be no hiccups.
We're looking to finally
just move these chimpanzees
to this professional
sanctuary environment.
- Okay, thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- It was good seeing you.
- Good seeing you.
I'll let you know when it's gonna run.
Okay.
The good news is they didn't
take her away in handcuffs.
Although, the judge said
that Tonia has to stay
two miles away from the compound
as the move takes place.
We are just prepping the chimps
for PETA to come on property
to take the possession of the chimps
starting 8 a.m. tomorrow.
It's gonna be the toughest thing
we've ever gone through.
For me, at least.
Yeah.
Candy Cane's joining in
on the conversation.
She wants to say, "PETA,
you're stupid for taking us."
PETA said that they can't wait to get them
transferred to a professional sanctuary.
I have to be off the property at 8 p.m.,
so, per PETA's orders, believe it or not.
And
So, we'll have to shut out
the lights at 8:00, but
we're gonna spend as much time
with them as we can.
You know what,
we should get Happy Meals today.
That's their favorite.
Yeah, they would love 'em.
They love chicken nugget Happy Meals.
I mean, love them.
One more.
You like them fries?
If you want 'em, have 'em
You get to know each chimp,
and that's the sad part,
is that they're taking them
from the only home they know
with the caregivers that
know them their whole life
and know what they're about, and
putting 'em in a situation
that they won't even know
nothing about 'em.
See, Candy don't like me crying.
And Connor don't. They know.
They know.
They know I love them more
than anything in this world.
They know.
I've spent many years with these guys,
taking care of them every day,
even whenever I've been sick.
They know.
Huh, Candy Cane?
We can take you no further
than right here,
the front of Connie Casey's property
on State Road CC in Festus.
The U.S. Marshals are here,
accompanied by local law enforcement
to watch over the seizure of chimpanzees.
We're trespassing?
Yeah, you can't come on property
until we're done.
Yeah, that'd be technically
off the property.
Okay.
- So, nothing in here though?
- No.
But they would be darting in here?
Yes.
Yeah.
The chimps are there,
and the chimps are on
the other side there.
Here comes somebody.
I hated the fact that
they had to be scared at all,
because they had to dart them
all one by one
and put them in the truck.
But I'm very happy.
Do you have any regrets?
I wish I had done it sooner.
That's all.
The rescue went smoothly,
and Tonia Haddix didn't show up.
But there was one major problem.
There was a chimpanzee missing.
The fight over Festus chimpanzees
should be over,
except for new revelations.
The chimpanzee lady
now making national news.
A movie star chimp named Tonka
and its disappearance.
It all has the makings
of a Hollywood plot,
but no, this is real life.
People fall in love with these chimps.
And you know, when you're in love,
your brain is out of control.
There's chemicals and hormones
and things happening to you
that makes you irrational.
Once I had chimps,
there was no way I could do without one.
I'll do anything and everything
to keep them kids.
I've got to take every chance I've got,
'cause you know what?
We might get lucky.