Save the Chimps

(Spoilers ahead!)

By Stacey Gualandi

Anyone else going apesh*t over the HBO MAX documentary series “Chimp Crazy”?

For the past three weeks, I have been engrossed with the story of a chimpanzee named Tonka, who went from a movie career to a Missouri breeding facility to a missing chimp report.

The four-part series (brought to life by Eric Goode, the same man behind Tiger King) digs deep into the (under) world of chimp trade, exploitation and rescue, focusing primarily on Tonka’s heartbreaking yet uplifting journey to freedom.

We’ve learned that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with support from actor Alan Cumming—who co-starred with Tonka in 1997’s Buddy—led a nationwide search for the 38-year-old chimp whose owner Tonia Haddix, the self-described “Dolly Parton of chimps,” was hiding him in a basement cage against a court order. But that’s just one part of this crazy story!

“I was already working with PETA on this campaign to rescue Tonka,” Cumming told the New York Times. “I thought Tiger King had done a lot of good in terms of educating people about the whole animal trade, so I thought, ‘Oh, this will maybe help. Someone who’s doing something about the chimp trade and the abuses  happening at private zoos, I would like to help highlight that.’”

According to HBO, the series “reveals the bonds between owners and their highly intelligent great ape pets; the risks humans take when they raise these animals as members of their family, and the risks to the welfare of the animals themselves.”

Save the Chimps—the Florida sanctuary where Tonka happily now calls home—hopes “Chimp Crazy” will also raise awareness of the need for stronger laws to protect them, like the Captive Primate Safety Act.

“Most of our chimps came from a laboratory in New Mexico that closed over 20 years ago,” says Dan Mathews, director of events and special Projects at Save the Chimps. This 150-acre refuge has played a critical role in liberating Tonka and over 330 needy primates.

Save the Chimps says Sept. 16 marks the 22-year “bananaversary” of those original 266 rescued chimpanzees, the largest chimp rescue in history.

Based in Fort Pierce, Mathews calls this safe haven “Florida’s wildest retirement community,” with approximately 220 chimps living on a dozen four-acre islands. He emphasizes that the chimps get life-long care because many live well into their 50s and 60s!

“Sanctuary life is about rediscovering joy, freedom and the bonds that make a family,” says Mathews. “Most of the rescued chimps were kept in isolated cages without being able to interact with their own kind. When they arrive, they are in different groups and have a several-month process, sometimes up to a year, in which they socialize. We figure out which island the newcomers have the best chance to acclimate to based on the personalities of the alpha male on that island and the personalities of the chimps.”

I met Mathews last year at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas where he joined the legendary members of The B-52s, Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson (friends of his since the 80s) to promote the band’s unique collaboration with “chimp artists” from Save the Chimps: a collection of acrylic-on-canvas paintings called the Wild Planet Collection.

Each piece in the collection is named after a B-52s song or lyric, reflects the colors of their album covers, and is signed by the band members. Proceeds benefit Save the Chimps and help spread the sanctuary’s mission nationwide.

“There’s a limited pool of supporters that they all go to for funds all the time,” says Mathews. “I thought people who buy paintings at these big art fairs, they think nothing of spending 2, 3, 4, $5,000 on a painting that they like…so I felt like it was a way to bring some new supporters into the movement.”

Mathews says one couple in Florida went bananas and bought five paintings and then remodeled a room around the artwork!

I wanted in on this monkey business too, so I am the proud owner of a painting called “Deep Sleep” (colors inspired by the B-52s “Whammy!” cover) painted by Pierson and a 16-year-old chimp named Lisa Marie.

“People hear how much we have in common with chimps, and when you actually see their artwork and can see that our closest living relatives in the animal world also share our creative impulses, it deepens your well of respect for these incredibly intelligent beings,” says Mathews to the Sante Fe Reporter.

Save the Chimps just introduced its latest “Primate Picassos” collection thanks to a collaboration with actors (and spouses) Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara. Both painted the base coats and then chose color combos for the chimps.  These works debuted last month at a Santa Fe art gallery to great acclaim, says Mathews, and will have another rollout before the release of Phoenix’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” in October.

Not only did I buy a painting by Lisa Marie, but I also became one of numerous donors to “adopt” her! This connection is what drew me to the streaming series.

Lisa Marie was born at the Missouri facility featured in “Chimp Crazy” and sold to an Elvis impersonator in Chicago. She was rented out for parties and private events and, when not performing, lived alone in a cage in the family’s basement.

“When she reached seven and was too strong to manage, [Elvis] gave her to the sanctuary because he had no idea when he bought her from an exotic animal dealer that they are unmanageable when they reach sexual maturity,” says Mathews. “They are dangerous.”

Lisa Marie arrived at Save the Chimps in 2015 and is now known for her energetic and feisty personality and for carrying around a toy cellphone, a la Paris Hilton. I also learned from watching the docu-series that Lisa Marie is Tonka’s daughter!

Save the Chimps says since arriving in 2022, Tonka has embraced his new life with “remarkable enthusiasm and resilience” after a necessary quarantine period for health check-ups. Now, he lives with 17 other chimps on a spacious island home, where he has made the most of his freedom, “delighting in the Florida sunshine and the companionship of his fellow chimps.”

That’s the good news. Sadly, over 1,200 chimpanzees live in captive settings in the United States—nearly 300 of whom reside in unaccredited facilities, medical laboratories or privately “owned.”

But thanks to “Chimp Crazy’s” riveting storytelling, PETA and sanctuaries like Save the Chimps, the painstaking work to ensure that every chimpanzee has the opportunity to live a life of freedom, dignity and joy continues.

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“Chimp Crazy” concludes Sunday on MAX.

To learn more about Tonka, the sanctuary and how to adopt and make a difference, go to www.savethechimps.org.