The U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked a Missouri woman’s license to operate her roadside zoo or sell exotic animals, after she failed to comply with a court order to turn over a chimpanzee in her care and then lied about it to a judge.
Tonia Haddix is “unfit to be licensed,” wrote Tierney Carlos, an administrative law judge with the department. Carlos ordered on March 13 that Haddix’s license under the Animal Welfare Act will be revoked for at least two years. The order will take effect 35 days later unless Haddix appeals.
Haddix did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. She contested the effort to strip her license, in part, on constitutional grounds — an argument that Carlos rejected.
“This order has been a long time coming,” said Brittany Peet, a lawyer for animal-welfare activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“Shutting down abusive captive wildlife facilities is difficult in the best of circumstances, but in circumstances like these,” she added, “when you're dealing with someone who has no problem lying in federal court or doing absolutely anything that she can in order to continue to neglect and exploit animals, it becomes a lot more more difficult.”
A hearing on Haddix’s license wasn’t necessary, Carlos wrote, because she disqualified herself by presenting false testimony in a U.S. District Court case that addressed the treatment of animals under her care at the now-closed Missouri Primate Foundation.
Haddix worked there before opening Sunrise Beach Safari in Sunrise Beach, Missouri.
Haddix told Missouri Senior District Judge Catherine D. Perry in 2022 that she couldn’t turn over a chimpanzee named Tonka to PETA for relocation to a Florida animal sanctuary because it had died and been cremated.
But Tonka was living in her basement, as documented by the 2024 HBO docuseries “Chimp Crazy.”
Judge Perry later ordered Haddix to reimburse PETA for $224,404 in lawyers’ fees and expenses. Haddix may also face charges of perjury.
Haddix told “St. Louis on the Air” in September that she ”absolutely” regretted lying about Tonka and that she thought turning over six of her seven chimpanzees would satisfy PETA.
“I had no idea that PETA would not claim victory with the six being taken out of there,” she said. “Whenever I said Tonka was dead to them, I underestimated their behaviors – their erratic, crazy behaviors – and I just had no clue that they would have challenged that any further.”
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