Chimp Crazy

I found this documentary hard to watch due to its overwhelming sadness and delusional ideology of those whom think it's acceptable to lock up and breed wild animals. How anyone can say they love these beautiful animals more than anything yet totally are unable to recognise that these animals are not PETS and locking them in cages dressing them up and feeding them happy meals is a total selfish narcissistic self serving and nothing to do with bettering any animals life! A lot of Americans seem to be obsessed with owning species that should NEVER be owned . Seems the US are not big on laws when it comes to wildlife protection.

This documentary was gripping, horrific, wild, hilarious and just mind blowing! It's hard to believe that there are people out there living their lives this way.

I've seen people criticise Eric and the crew for their decisions throughout this documentary. Without giving too much away, I personally think they made the right decisions. Tonka or any chimp, primate, wild animal etc should not have to live in those conditions, but Eric and the crew are not PETA nor are they law enforcement. They are there to create a documentary and spread awareness about this wild way of living, they are there to observe and to tell the story of all sides. Personally I think they made the right decision at the right time.

Certain parts of the doc were incredibly difficult to watch/listen to. I must have asked myself "what is wrong with these people?" multiple times through each episode. The love they have for these chimps is very strange, but fascinating.

An excellent documentary! Well done to everyone who was involved in creating it.

Right off the bat the most shocking thing about this documentary is the way these people feed their pet chimpanzees - McDonald's Happy Meals, ice cream, donuts, Gatorade - wow. I get wanting to give your pet a treat but no wonder Tonka was overweight when he was rescued. It can't be healthy for a wild animal to eat things like sugar and processed fast food.

But it just serves as an example to show you how ignorant these people are, they're not trained animal handlers or vets or wildlife specialists. It's honestly a little creepy how much these women love primates, to the point of obsession. I've always thought chimps were ugly so I don't get the appeal at all, especially knowing they can rip your face off on a whim once they get past the age of five.

"Chimp Crazy" made me feel all the emotions - happiness, sadness, anger. I have a lot of mixed feelings about how this docuseries was presented to the viewers. I don't know who their target audience was and who you were supposed to be rooting for during the short span of 4 episodes. There were valid arguments from both PETA and Tonia Haddix, addressing their concerns to of why Tonka should be placed in a sanctuary vs being kept confided in a small room.

Aside from the protagonist (Tonia or PETA?) there is a bigger picture to be seen here - people should NOT own exotic pets. HOWEVER, this is a two sided coin I think. On one side you have obvious exotic animals who just cannot be domesticated and will forever have animalistic instincts/behaviors, and in the other side you have humans who have had said exotic animals since they were babies. So I think there is a valid argument for both sides - one being: everyone and their mother owns a dog. Dogs can rip your face off, just like a chimp can. But dogs have become domesticated and not everyone owns a chimp. If you have a 200 pound dog there comes a point where that dog cannot be controlled. If it wants to one day kill your baby sitting in its stroller, it'll do it. But it's LESS likely than a chimp.

This show is an eye opener for the exotic pet world and at times was honestly hard to watch. I think both sides were pretty narcissistic. I couldn't stand the attorney for PETA (Goodman) you can tell that dude is a prick. I agree with Tonia that PETA is not for the animals well being always. The way they manipulate the situation to make her out to be some evil pos monster was absolutely disgusting. Tonia I think has some mental health issues but she loved that damn Chimp. So I'm a bit torn on all of it. She clearly didn't learn her lesson once you find out what happens in the last 5-10 minutes of episode 4.

Hard to watch but it's a good watch. Pretty educational as well.

These chimp mommies and PETA fanatics are all psychotic, but are on the extreme opposite of the spectrum. This documentary is very revealing about the mindset of both groups and their obsession and compulsion is a very sad and disturbing commentary on the ability of human emotion to defy logic and reason. Naturally, It would be best if Federal law would prohibit the private ownership of exotic animals. This documentary is a testament to the absolute fact that these exotic animals cannot be fully domesticated, and that is especially true for chimpanzees. These chimp mommies depicted in this film love their chimp babies so much and are so emotionally attached to them that they are willing to keep them incarcerated when they grow beyond the cute and cuddly stage. The film makers probably had no idea that they would be uncovering and depicting a serious mental illness associated with these chimp mommies. This film also reveals how members of PETA on the other hand are also compulsive and ultimately militant in their obsession to control and prohibit the private ownership of animals. Their emotions are also so out of control that they come off in the film, as they do in public spectacles, as frenzied fanatics seeking to prove their virtue to the world. This documentary is difficult to watch at times, but is informative and casts a light on a serious situation that needs to be remedied by Congress.