Chimp Crazy

Ignore the bad reviews. Probably an honest 7.5 rating, but, unfortunately, misguided "one" ratings need to be balanced in the equation.

This series does not glorify exotic animal ownership. Quite the opposite, in fact. The docu-series exposes what's wrong with owning primates, and sheds some needed light on some of the truly unhinged people that own (or want to own) them. In NO way does it advocate for owning chimps.

It's a natural follow-on to "The Tiger King", with a "colorful" main character, who thinks PETA is the problem. Exotic animals are beautiful, and compelling in many ways, but in no way should they be brought into people's homes and treated like pet or family members. If you are an animal lover, and enjoyed "The Tiger King", this series warrants a look.

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.

First off, I'm a dog owning omnivore & not a fan of a lot of PETA's nonsense. Renaming fish "kittens of the sea" & whatnot. "Vegan" leather is plastic garbage in a year.

HOWEVER... here we appear to be in 100% agreement. Plus I love Alan Cumming. He's really quite lovely in his passion about this particular case.

This woman should not EVER be allowed to own ANY kind of animal again, & ESPECIALLY not a primate of any kind. NOBODY should be allowed to own a chimp, orangutan or higher primate of that nature. Every single person shown owning one was genuinely mentally unwell. Willing to abandon their husbands, children, entire lives for their ape "child." They are completely disconnected from reality & enabled by their husbands, people around them, & lax/nonexistent federal laws.

The conditions these animals are kept in are so inhumane. Tonia flat-out lies & says Tonka had "free run" of several rooms that people ALSO had access to, plus large glass windows w/ no bars. Yet not once do we EVER see her interact with him without big bars between them because while she's delusional, she's not THAT stupid (though after episode 4... apparently she is).

Those involved with this show are also HUGE enablers as well for letting her get away with what she was doing for so long.

The show glosses over the fact that she pays for the chimps by trafficking other exotics & primates. Nobody who TRULY cares for animals would be a part of that. Seriously. That's absolutely awful.

This, like most "reality" programming, feels like exploitation of people who are stupid, desperate, lonely, narcissistic &/or mentally ill. Like a 21st century version of circus freak shows.

At least in this case it's the animals that "win" (the ones that don't die anyway) and wealthy white people that suffer in the end.

"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.

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.