ST. LOUIS — A chimpanzee who once starred in movies and was believed to have died, was taken to a sanctuary in Florida after being rescued from a basement in Missouri.
Tonka, a 38-year-old chimpanzee, was at the center of a legal battle between the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Tonia Haddix, a documentary filmmaker, KSDK reported. PETA had previously sued over the living conditions for Tonka and other chimps at the former Missouri Primate Foundation, and a judge ordered the animals removed from the facility.
Last summer, when sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service removed six chimps from MPF, Haddix, who was the caretaker at the facility, said that Tonka had died of congestive heart failure, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Haddix’s husband is alleged to have filed an affidavit saying he cremated Tonka’s body.
PETA activists said that they never believed Tonka had died, and began searching for him. Last week, PETA said in a news release that it had received a recording of a phone call in which Haddix confessed that Tonka was still alive but was going to be euthanized.
A judge’s emergency order allowed rescuers to retrieve Tonka from the basement where he was being held, KSDK reported. Officials told the station that the chimp was overweight, confined to a tiny cage, and lacked proper veterinary care.
“I lied to them,” Haddix told the Post-Dispatch. “I did it to protect (Tonka) from the evil clutches of PETA. He is like a son to me. I love him as much as I do my own children, maybe more.”
Haddix told the newspaper that Tonka had been staying with a friend of hers before coming to live with her in November. She said that since then Tonka has stayed in a cage, but had access to a 60-inch television and iPad so he could watch YouTube while she and her husband planned to build an outdoor enclosure on their property, the Post-Dispatch reported.
“I elected to keep Tonka where I knew he would die peacefully and with people that loved him,” Haddix told the newspaper. “I did it for that chimp. I made that chimp a promise that he would never be abandoned, he would never have to work again, that he could retire and be around the people that he loved.”
Tonka was taken to Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Florida.
“We are thrilled to welcome Tonka out of a basement and into the sunshine,” Ana Paula Tavares, CEO of Save the Chimps, told KSDK. “Our care team looks forward to helping him bond with other chimps so he can enjoy more of a life as nature intended.”
Tonka worked in Hollywood, acting alongside Brendan Fraser in “George of the Jungle,” and Alan Cumming in “Buddy,” Save the Chimps said in a news release.
Cumming, like PETA, did not believe that Tonka had died and had offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could help find the animal, Vanity Fair reported.
A hearing is scheduled to determine whether Haddix will face charges for defying court orders, the Post-Dispatch reported. While Haddix could also potentially face perjury charges, she told the newspaper she is not concerned because she has terminal cancer.
“I have acute myeloid leukemia. They gave me six months, three months ago, and I’m not doing treatment,” Haddix told the Post-Dispatch. “So if I die in jail, I die in jail. If I die outside, I die outside. I don’t care.”
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