As a teenager, I volunteered at a local animal shelter that specialized in caring for large dogs. Huskies, German Shepherds, Pit Bull mixes—if it was a dog that could knock you over, there was probably one in the kennel. Dogs from puppy mills and animal hoarders showed up frequently, but a shocking number of shelter dogs were surrendered by their owners. In theory, people liked these big, beautiful dogs. Once the puppies grew up, however, some pet owners decided they were too much care or realized they weren’t equipped to handle the dog in the first place. Little attention was paid to the dog in all of this, even though it was the dog who suffered the most, being shuffled from one household to another or left in less than ideal living conditions.
Of course, rescuing dogs is something completely different than capturing chimpanzees. But the new documentary series from HBO Chimpanzee crazy revolves around the same tension between human desires and animal needs, often portraying the theme with heartbreaking clarity. It is an improved work by director Eric Goode, whose previous series Tiger King took over early pandemic pop culture with its crazy characters and complicated conspiracies. At the center is a Joe Exotic-like figure Chimpanzee crazybut fortunately, Goode is taking better care of the animals this time.
Chimpanzee crazy follows the scandal surrounding Tonia Haddix and her work at the Missouri Primate Foundation. After a lengthy investigation and a lawsuit by PETA, she was declared unfit to care for the seven chimpanzees on the property, but when authorities arrived to move the chimps to a sanctuary, only six were there. The seventh chimp, former Hollywood star Tonka, had disappeared. Tonia claims he died of heart failure; PETA officials are convinced he is alive and that Tonia is hiding him. The series is essentially about this battle of intelligence and deception, but rounds out the proceedings with important context as well as a moral dilemma faced by the documentary crew.
This mystery adds an interesting layer to the series that is a smart move to address the elephant – or rather the tiger – in the room. Chimpanzee crazy began filming with Tonia in the summer of 2021, after Tiger King exploded, making any documentary film crew, especially one led by Eric Goode, persona non grata in the exotic animal community. So Goode hires a “stand-in director” named Wayne Cunningham, a former circus performer who has gotten into legal trouble in the past for his treatment of animals. Wayne knows the exotic animal world and is the perfect person for Tonia and her colleagues to trust. But that trust is based on a lie, and the longer the series goes on, the more Wayne has to deal with it. As Tonia admits increasingly incriminating information, it’s a fascinating commentary on the documentary genre itself.
The other common thread of the show is the unfortunate stories of chimpanzee owners. There’s the infamous Travis incident in Connecticut, where Charla Nash was brutally mauled by her friend Sandy Herold’s pet chimp. Goode weaves together images from the crime scene with interviewees, and punctuates them with the harrowing audio recording of Sandy’s 911 call. Then there’s Buck in Oregon, whose owner Tamara Brogoitti called the police to kill him after he attacked her daughter. This story is more recent and far less documented, has some gaps, and could have used more time, especially since members of Tamara’s community all but accuse her of creating a cruel situation that would justify Buck’s quick and brutal death.
These stories of violence serve to ground Tonia and her delusions. She is obsessed with her chimp charges, extolling how “you can mold them to be you.” Tonia delivers many chilling lines that speak to her unbalanced relationship with the animals, especially Tonka. She says she loves that chimps “don’t grow up and develop a will of their own,” and she frequently refers to the apes as her “children.” You don’t need a degree in psychology to see how much this lady exudes.
And although Chimpanzee crazy When Tonia spends (too much) time getting her lips plumped or her eyelashes done, it’s not those moments that reveal how out of touch with reality she is. It’s the moments when she swears she’s the best caregiver for these animals while feeding them chicken nuggets and chocolate milk from McDonald’s, or when she insists Tonka is happy because he has his own iPad and email account. In one truly tragic scene, Tonia shows Tonka Instagram videos of chimpanzees from her phone through the plastic wall of his enclosure; she says he loves it, while the animal just stares blankly at the screen in front of him.
Chimpanzee crazy is anything but perfect, runs out of steam in the fourth and final episode and suffers a little from the Tiger King syndrome of focusing too much on peripheral characters. Actor Alan Cumming features heavily thanks to his past work with Tonka and PETA. He’s a welcome middleman who shows how far we’ve come in understanding animal rights, though his presence can seem superfluous. The series is also missing a key piece of the puzzle: Connie Casey, who ran the Missouri Primate Foundation after decades of breeding and selling chimpanzees and who refused to talk to anyone. It’s frustrating that she can evade responsibility for the suffering – both human and animal – she caused.
On the whole, however, Chimpanzee crazy exposes this shocking, often disturbing world of chimpanzee keeping very effectively. While the series is focused on chimpanzees, it also forces the viewer to confront their own relationship with animals. How much of that relationship do you project onto this creature and how much do you actually do for it?
