Oof so it looks like the director of Chimp Crazy could only drag out 4 episodes of content out of their "target". All of it feels so yuck to me.
Like obviously the welfare of the primates living in people's houses or locked in small cages in basements is going to be bad. But to seize the chimp and never let the only family he knew in to visit is really nasty.
Not just for Tonia Haddix, but for the chimp. There's a reason zoos will transfer animals to other facilities with people that animal knows and those people will stay with them for at least a few weeks - it helps them transition.
We get so little insight into how the chimps even adapted to sanctuary life. We're just told "it's fine they're in a sanctuary." And that is so disingenious. The footage we do have never shows Tonka integrated into a social group, but rather just wandering alone and detached from the group.
PETA also saying they don't want to destroy people's lives one moment, and then turning around and providing an ultimatium to Tonia of either paying them $240,000 to cover their attorney costs or saying she'll never own an animal (even domesticated animals) ever again is wild. I understand saying she shouldn't own any exotics but not even a dog or cat??? Jfc, PETA. She wasn't an animal abuser. She cared, she just had a very warped understanding of what was care for primates.
I just felt super uncomfortable with how this documentary exploited this woman, creating deliberately intimate close ups that were clearly meant to repulse the audience - did we need to see her get her botox injection? We really didn't.
Overall, the whole thing was a wild ride but I can only feel pity and sadness for Tonia Haddix. Even though I don't agree with anything she was doing - especially brokering exotic animals. And it really just affirms that no matter how much PETA says they "want to help" people and "they care", they ultimately just want to stop people from having animals in their lives.
No one in this documentary are the "good guys". And the only reason it exists is because of very unethical means to "get a story." Which sours the whole thing and just leaves me feeling sad about the whole affair.
