Chimp Queens: The Illegal Dark Side to Pet Chimpanzees | Cid Dwyer

Intro chips are not to be kept as pets in private homes chips don't belong in cages they should not be in prisoned they have committed no crime as much as they think they're cute and they're wonderful to have that they belong in the wild they're wild animals but the animal itself is suffering I seen with my own eyes when I could see Travis used to sit on the floor in a corner and Rock now that is not a happy healthy chimpanzee hi everyone welcome or welcome back to my channel my name is Sid and in today's video I'm going to be talking about the pet chimpanzee trade in the United States while making this video I found out that Netflix is making a documentary on the people that I'm about to talk about and not only that but the same people who worked on the Tiger King documentary are the same people working on the chimpanzee documentary so yeah there will be a lot to go on over so first I want to talk Connie Casey about Connie Casey pretty much all of the problems to do with pet chimpanzees in the United States come back to Connie Connie is based in Jefferson County Missouri and she has always had a love for chimps she first started to monetize her love in 1969 when she and her husband opened a pet store on one of the lower levels of her home on their 15 acre property at that point they had a number of exotic and unusual animals and wanted to get more so when baby chimpanzees started to be taken from the African jungle to be sold into the pet trade they were some of the first who wanted one they got their first Chimp in 1972 a male named coko and then they got their first female in 1975 named Bridget who was already pregnant at the time when they got those chimps their pet shop turned into a mini zoo and people started coming from all over the country to see The Chimps because there was so much interest in The Chimps they started taking them to scout groups and schools for entertainment then in 1979 they closed the pet shop and put their full attention towards specifically chimps they began braiding their chimps and selling the babies from 1981 to 2001 Connie estimated that she sold anywhere from 15 to 20 chimps and at the time they were selling from anywhere between $440,000 to 50 ,000 if you're lucky enough to have a a good a breeding maale then it's very fortunate for you in the past theyve baby chimps have brought in $40,000 because they had the facilities they started taking in chimps that were retired from the entertainment industry ex research chimps and chimps that were pets that could no longer be looked after so they made a sanctuary called the Missouri primate Foundation they gave tours of their property and showed off their chimps at events and for groups of people all for a fee and then in 1986 her husband died a couple of years later she met her new husband Mike Casey Mike helped her start a new business in 1992 called chimp party while they still took babies away from their mothers to sell them as pets that was no longer their primary focus anymore they still took the babies away from their mothers but to use them in their chimp parties they would put the baby chimps in a diaper and in an outfit and they would let guests of the party hold them and feed them with a bottle on their website it was described as an unforgettable entertaining and educational experience it would cost $150 per 30 minutes for up to 10 people Mike also helped Connie train some of her chimps so that they could be used in greeting card photo shoots in commercials in TV shows and movies the majority of chimps used in the entertainment industry came from Mike and Connie chimps can usually live between 30 and 40 years in captivity but after 8 years old they become too aggressive and too strong to be used in the entertainment industry and in parties so after that they are locked in a cage never to be let out again ever since 1998 Connie has received multiple citations from the USDA about how inadequate her cages are she's received multiple citations over the years about how many rodents roaches and flies are observed in the cages she was cited multiple times for failing to provide adequate enrichment for The Chimps one citation mentioned how two chimps without any enrichment had significant hair loss and chimps pulling their own hair out is a form of self harm associated with psychological distress and the vast majority of citations mentioned how the cages were very grimy and didn't have adequate ventilation when The Chimps younger than 8 years old were allowed outside of their cages they didn't receive much better treatment because they were usually taken to do some kind of entertainment work in 2008 one of their chimps were made to do work on the movie Speed Racer and that movie actually lost its no animals were harmed stamp of approval because a trainer hit a chimp in front of the representative from the American Humane Association another of their chimps named Connor was taken to do photo shoots for Hallmark Greeting cards during these photo shoots he was required to mimic a human smile but a smile for a chimp is actually a fear Grimace and repeatedly having to make this fearful facial expression took its toll on Conor during his last photo shoot he overturned a table bit the hand of Mike Casey and tried to attack three other people and from that day on he remained in a cage who's your riest uh right now it's probably Connor Connor stop it you wouldn't go in there with Connor not anymore I wouldn't but in Suzy the chimp 2001 three of Connie and Mike's 23 chimps escaped from their cage and that escape would lead to their chimp population going down to 22 a breeding trao of adult chimps got out of their cage when Connie accidentally left it unlocked after cleaning it out two of The Chimps were the parents of Travis the chimp who molded Charan Nash and their names were Susie and Coco the other chimp was Gabby Susie had actually given birth a few weeks prior but that baby had been long taken away from her to sell Connie had actually witnessed the Escape so she was able to hit Susie with a tranquilizer D before she had made it off the property but the tranquilizer wasn't effective so she was able to make it off the property once they were free they be lined for the next door neighbor's house that was familiar territory for Koko when Koko was young Connie would let him freely play in her yard but sometimes he would sneak away to the next door neighbor's house he found a friend in the next door neighbor's young child he would take off and go over and go walk in their house and get this 5-year-old kid by the hand bring him over here to play with him you know he would yeah once the much older Coco reached the neighbor's house he opened the front door but understanding that these adult chimps were now a lot stronger and a lot more aggressive the neighbor told them to shoot it was at that moment the 17-year-old son of the next house over arrived home after a shift at Dairy Queen his name was Jason coats and he was in a car with three other friends while the music blared likely enticing by the music the three chimps rushed over to the car at first the teenagers were amused by The Chimps but quickly became scared kooko started banging on the car screaming and bearing his teeth at the three boys and one girl inside jumped up on the hood slapped it a couple times jumped off it was you know on its Knuckles like running at it the girl was the one driving and she drove the car into the backyard where they all got out the chimps then grabbed a hold of the car and started rocking it back and forth and Jason was very much aware of how aggressive these chimps could be 6 years earlier there was another incident in their neighborhood in 1994 a group of people were visiting a friend in a nearby trailer park when all of a sudden they heard a big thud against the side of the trailer there were four adults inside and three children the next thing they knew the door opened and a chimp came inside the chimp grabbed one of the 2-year-old children by her ponytail and dragged her across the floor while everybody else darted into one room one of the adults noticed what was happening to the girl so he tried to free her from the chimp he was able to get the girl free by bashing the chimp over the head with a frying pan in the commotion someone called the police but before they arrived Connie showed up and she tranquilized the chimp the family sued Mike and Connie Casey but they reached some kind of settlement outside of Court oh and that thud that they heard against the side of the trailer that was the chimp throwing their dog against it with that in mind Jason knew he wanted The Chimps off his property him and his friends started throwing rocks and swearing at The Chimps but the chimps started throwing the Rocks back and then Jason's dog joined in on the pandemonium he was barking and nipping at The Chimps so one of them grabbed him and threw him at 10 ft three chimpanzees were trying to attack us they threw my dog across the backyard and I we tried to scare them off and they ran chased us back down to the car Koko was becoming more agitated and it it was at that point that he charged at Jason while The Chimps were distracted with the dog they all ran back into the car for safety that was when Koko jumped on the roof of the car and banged his fists against it with the situation only continuing to escalate Jason knew he needed to do something to get them out of it he made a run for it and he did end up making it inside which is where he called the police he knew the police would take some time to arrive and with his friends still stuck in the car circled by chimps he loaded his 20 gauge shotgun at some point Connie arrived with a dark gun and was able to coax The Chimps away Susie was then struck with a tranquilizer for a second time the other teens inside of the car made a break for it as well and were able to make it inside the chimps were running back and forth between Jason's house and the road so Jason made his way out onto his porch with his shotgun Connie pleaded with him not to shoot but he took aim at Susie and shot her her in the back he shot her twice more once in her side and once in her face to put her out of her misery but she unfortunately wasn't put out of her misery she didn't die for another 2 hours when a vet euthanized her and after that Mike and Connie were intent on making sure Jason faced some serious repercussions they said that because chimpanzees share 98% DNA with humans that what Jason did was 98% murder people began leaving stuffed monkeys and flowers on the Casey's fence line and behind the fence they erected a large sign sorry this photo isn't even remotely readable because it is so old but it read in loving memory of Suzie senselessly murdered by Jason coats it also listed his address and a cash reward for anyone who could come forward with more information on Jason one man told them that Jason gets his dog drunk a teenager told them that he saw Jason kick a kitten like a football once a woman said she knew a man who picked up Jason hitchhiking once and Jason asked that man if he had any meth and Mike sent all of those alleged incidents to the local newspapers and a month after the shooting incident Jason was picked up by detectives they questioned him and then arrested him he shared a cell with 20 adults and his bond was set to $3,500 he was charged with destruction of property over $750 the property being Suzie and that was a felony and he was also charged with animal abuse which was a misdemeanor if found guilty for the misdemeanor he faced as much as a year in prison and a $1,000 fine if found guilty for the felony he faced as much as 5 years in prison and a $55,000 fine following the testimonies of several neighbors that The Chimps were behaving playfully and posed no threat a jury found Jason guilty of property damage and animal abuse being a felon is really hold you back in a lot of different ways and you know just always having to put that Mark on an application uh it keeps you from being able to work on government jobs and different things he spent 30 days in jail and because of that missed the birth of his first son his first Father's Day his wife's High School graduation and their first anniversary the judge also ordered Jason to write letters of apology to everyone who wrote Into the court to complain about him he thinks he wrote about 300 letters back ever since the incident Jason has maintained that it was self-defense I pulled in my driveway and was attacked by three of them and I had to shoot it that wasn't a decision I made for myself that was a position that that I was forced into it wasn't until 2020 that the law seriously started to listen to him because in August 2020 more chimps escaped that caused Jason's 20 in one situation to come rushing back to him the IT team found at least twice this summer chimps have gotten out and wandered around the neighborhood we spoke with two neighbors who live right next to the sanctuary they say they have nothing against it but they do wish The Chimps were locked up more securely one neighbor who did not want to go on camera tells us on June 30th she came home to find a chimp in her living room this is not safe like how is this even possible possible with more evidence that the chimps couldn't be contained he sought to have his record wiped clean and he was able to get it wiped a lot of other people wrote letters in for me which was overwhelming I couldn't I can't can't thank them enough for that you know judge Mei just kind of finally let common sense and reasoning take the day 20 years later and and granted me my Spong despite Connie and Mike being so unified to try and Destroy Jason's life they didn't stay that way in 2008 they got a divorce after the divorce Micah took three young chimps and a Capuchin monkey and traveled to Las Vegas at the The downfall of Mike Casey time a court order was put in place which prevented Connie from selling any of the chimps still on her property because they were still considered his property with the three chimps he started a new business called a great ape experience he was attempting to rent them out for movies shows commercials and events the main chimp he was trying to find work for was Kenzie he had the most experience on screen already appearing in a number of commercials and movies Mike posted Kenzie up for rent on a website similar to Craigslist he also made a website just for Kenzie but no matter how much advertising he did there just wasn't much interest in using chimps anymore and since Mike was a licensed animal exhibitor he had to report back to the USDA every time he traveled in each of the reports he made from December 2009 to September member 2010 he said that the chimps hadn't been working because there had been no opportunities and that he still hadn't found somewhere to live permanently at the time he was living in a motor home because he wasn't sure where he wanted to live he kept dragging The Chimps back and forth between Nevada and California and while he couldn't find any work for The Chimps or a place to live he entered a legal battle basically he bumped into a woman named Virginia she was training an 11-month-old ch named Eli and he was aware of who she was because she had a previous business relationship with his ex-wife Connie when he left Connie one of The Chimps was pregnant and he thought that the 11-month age of Eli lined up with the time that the chimp was going to give birth he also thought that the facial traits of Eli were similar to the facial traits of The Chimps they had back at the Missouri primate foundation so he was completely convinced that Eli was technically his chimp Micha wanted the court to order Virginia to get a DNA test of Eli Missouri breeder chimp breeder James Mike Casey says his exwife violated their divorce agreement by selling Eli after he was born at their PR primate habitat in Missouri he testified Friday in a motion to conduct DNA testing on Eli to prove that the $65,000 chimp came from the habitat Gina Vala is the caretaker for Eli now on the stand she told Circuit Judge Charles Roberts that she is a close friend of Casey's ex-wife and that she traveled to the Missouri Habitat to pick up Eli from a breeder who had asked her to care for him she says that breeder was not Casey's x-wife the judge determined a DNA test wasn't necessary Virginia was able to provide the necessary paperwork that proved that Eli was not Mike's or Connie's judge Roberts ruled against conducting a DNA test on Eli raising questions of whether such a test would be conclusive on the primate but at the moment I do not have uh sufficient information in front of me that such testing is even um available the case was then of course dropped he eventually settled in Clark County Nevada in late 2010 while he was there he kept The Chimps locked inside of small cages inside of his motor home which was in the backyard of the house he was renting the previous tenant of the home had big cats living there so they had some cages in the backyard that Mike would allow The Chimps into occasionally that is Ken see the chimp outside and you can see the lower half of the motor home in the background but in order to keep the chimps at that location he needed to apply for a permit issued by the local County but at first he didn't get a permit he may have thought he didn't need a permit because the big cats that previously lived on the property had a permit that went through until 2015 but that permit only covered two tigers and a cougar not any chimps he did eventually apply for a permit in late 2012 and a bunch of people came out of the woodwork to try and stop that from happening one of the first people to draw attention to the issue was animal activist Linda Faso she distributed Flyers around the neighborhood with a picture of a snarling Chimp on it alongside a before and after picture of Charla nasher's face she and other activists also held a protest next to his house another person to go against Mike was a former friend of his named Mark Wier they had known each other for a decade and for 10 months Mark let Mike Park his motor home with his chimps outside of his place Mark was actually a professional photographer as well and the photos that Mike used on the listings for Kenzie the chimp were photos taken by Mark and then a year prior to the whole public discourse around Mike wanting to get a permit for his chimps Mark and Mike must have had some kind of falling out because Mark made a comment about Mike on his public Facebook page Mark had an album on his Facebook page that included pictures of Mike and Mike's ex fiance and pictures with their chimps and then Mark chimed in with information about how Mike traits his chimps he said Mike uses and abuses his chimps and he feeds them old food and he Yanks their arms so hard he's surprised they don't come out of the socket and two of the three chimps apparently don't see the light of day and then a year after making that comment when the whole situation with the permit was going down Mark spoke to K news about Mike he reiterated the sentiments he already made on Facebook and then he added that Mike would hit the chimps at top their head or refused to give them food until they stopped making noise he also said he wouldn't let his worst enemies stay in the motor home where Mike kept The Chimps not only were these individuals coming forward to try and stop Mike from getting a permit but just in general the public was very wary of letting chimps live in the community two chimps escaped their enclosure in North Las Vegas it happened a few months prior to Mike's permit request in July 2012 basically a male and a female chimp escaped their cage the male chimp buddy was being aggressive towards cars so he unfortunately had to be shot the female chimp CJ was able to be tranquilized that specific situation prompted count Commissioners to pursue tighter regulations around owning exotic animals so when Mike applied for the permit Not only was that sad and scary situation right at the front of everyone's minds but Town leaders were looking to tighten the regulations anyways so Mike was applying for a permit at the worst time possible for him but it was actually at a very beneficial time for The Chimps when he made the pitch to try and get a permit to the town Advisory board he tried to pull up the hotstrings referring to Kenzie he said if he was in my arms he would reach out and want to come into yours to love you he's just the sweetest but that was a difficult case to make especially when he had a long unmissable scar on the right side of his nose in 1992 an older chimp named B bit off most of his nose Casey's ex-husband uh I guess the story goes he walked into one of their cages with a with an ice cream or something and and one of them jumped up and bit his nose off Mike told 8 news now that he blames himself for the attack and that he should have been more careful walking into an adult male's cage because they are very Territorial and he also said it took many surgeries to get his nose looking the way it does now long story longer he was denied a permit in a 5 to1 vote and was given 30 days to move out and he had this to say to the Las Vegas son I would ask for an allowance so I'm not chimps in a truck trying to find a place because I will not give these up to a sanctuary they are my family I'm not sure if he was granted an allowance but he did move on he moved his chimp family to NY County in May 2013 he applied for a permit to keep the chimps there and was once again denied then the very next month he started posting four sale listings of his three chimps then the month after that he canceled his exhibitor license logging that there was no work left for the chimps or his capuchin monkey after not finding any success in trying to sell The Chimps through classified listings he traveled to Florida on July 10th to try and illegally sell the three chimps to a roadside Zoo for $50,000 but that was put to an end when an investigator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission caught him in the ACT he was then arrested and taken into custody on charges of the unlawful possession of three adult chimps that weighed over50 he of course didn't have the proper permits to possess The Chimps in his custody nor did he have the appropriate labeling for his vehicle or proper carriers to transport The Chimps through the state he was also charged for not having the state required insurance when he was arrested his capuchin monkey and the three chimps Kenzie Hannah and Bentley were seized and taken to a non-accredited sanctuary called Sun Coast primot Sanctuary the three chimps were eventually transferred to an accredited Sanctuary called the center of great apes after a trial Mike was fined and sentenced to 6 months probation so while Mike lost everything his ex-wife Connie was trying to make some changes to ensure that she did not The beginning of the end of Connie end up like him in 2012 she added a we need your help link to her website and clicking that link would lead you to the adopt a chimp page on that page she said times had changed and she was no longer taking the chimps out for parties and that you can now adopt a chimp instead even though she stopped taking her chimp to parties she still found herself in hot water with the Animal Rights group Peter and that was because Angela kago a longtime former volunteer of the Missouri primate Foundation contacted Peter much like Connie Sandra Harold and pretty much anyone who owns a chimp Angela was specifically drawn to chimps she first got hands-on experience with chimps when she did research on them at a biomedical facility and then after she stopped working there she got her chimp fix by volunteering at the Missouri primate Foundation she volunteered between 2001 and 2007 where she was sometimes living on Connie's property because she would volunteer so regularly but during her time there she witnessed a lot of horrible things but at the time it didn't quite click just how bad it was she saw Mike punch chimps and mothers frantically search for their babies after Mike and Connie took their babies away from them she said it was specifically done by luring the mother into a cage and then shooting her with a blow dart after suie died the next prolific breeding pair for Connie was Tammy and Tonka Angela saw that when Tammy would wake up after having her baby taken away from her she would scream throw items around her cage lift up her blanket in search of her baby and not eat for days it wasn't until 2014 when Angela became a vegan and completely changed her perspective on what Connie was doing so she contacted Peter in the hopes of them being able to do something for a number of months Peter sat on the information that Angela told them but then in June 2015 the US fish and wildlife service announced that they were categorizing captive chimps as endangered species subject to legal protection so that gave Peter something to work with because captive chimps were now protected by The Endangered Species Act and in the terms of The Endangered Species Act Connie was not allowed to harm or harass The Chimps there are a lot of things that harm and harass cover but pretty much it means that Connie has to provide the chimps with adequate living conditions but with the information Angela provided Connie was not doing that and also captive chimps being categorized as endangered meant that could no longer be used in invasive research which is amazing so anyway since Angela and Connie still had a good relationship and Connie had actually asked Angela to return to volunteer a number of times over the years Angela was able to easily return to Connie's property twice to volunteer in 2016 where's your eyes where's your eyes where's your eyes there they are where's your nose there's your nose where's your ear now that's how smart you are where there yeah buunny boy but she wasn't just volunteering she was gathering video evidence for Peter and then after receiving the video footage Angela took in November 2016 Peter notified Connie that they were intending to sue her on top of that Peter also publicly released the footage that Angela took they did that with the purpose of pressuring her into willingly handing over the 16 chimps she had in her possession all Peter wanted was for Connie to let them transfer The Chimps to an accredited Sanctuary at no cost to her if she wasn't willing to do that within 60 days they were going to sue but then the next month Connie filed a lawsuit against Peter and Angela for defamation the lawsuit sought punitive damages she also denied she had 16 chimps at the facility but Peter believed they had good Intel and that Connie definitely had 16 chimp on her property oh and Connie actually didn't own all of the chimps a number of them were owned by other people but were just boarding on her property so Peter was able to find out that after they notified Connie with their intent to sue her she started transferring The Chimps Elsewhere on or around December 22nd 2016 she transferred Kirby KK and Daisy to a different facility another chimp named Joey was taken by his owner to an unknown location and then in February 2017 the owner of the chimp named Ali willingly sent her to an accredited Sanctuary but yeah after that it became very clear that Connie was not going to hand The Chimps over so Peter had to sue in June 2017 Peter officially sued Connie for breaching The Endangered Species Act the actor Alan [ __ ] even wrote a letter to Connie urging her to hand The Chimps over but Connie had no interest in letting the chimps go so she entered a legal battle by July 2018 Connie spent $70,000 on attorney fees and she owed another $1,000 and that is Tonia Haddix when the exotic animal breeder and dealer T hadex entered the scene she's a really well-connected person in the Exotic Animal trade in the United States she's even friends with Joe Exotic and attended his wedding she can be seen cradling a monkey in the background of his wedding video Antonia made her appearance in Connie's life when Connie was going through a big life event also you know the Peter lawsuit she just so happened to show up on Connie's doorstep hoping to buy a baby chimpanzee after that they became friends and T helped her try and come up with ways to try and get her out of the lawsuit then they came up with an idea they thought would work with Connie's finances dwindling and thinking it would render the lawsuit null and void Connie transferred all of the chimps into T's name in late 2018 I'm like Connie you can move these chimps you can sell these chimps you can give these chimps away there's nothing they can do about it I said sign them over to me and let me take the grantt of that loss then T moved her mobile home onto Connie's property to help look after the chimps Connie pushed to have her name removed from the lawsuit claiming that she couldn't possibly be violating The Endangered Species Act because she didn't own The Chimps but of course she was kept on the lawsuit for multiple reasons one because she was directly responsible for the ACT violations two because even though she no longer owned the animals on paper she was still subject to statutory liability anyway and three if she was removed from the lawsuit she would be able to repossess The Chimps after the litigation ended so while Connie remained on the lawsuit which is not what they wanted the plan didn't completely fail in March 2019 T was added to the lawsuit and she well truly took the haat off Connie from that point the chimp Crystal was given to the center of great apes voluntarily by her owner a few chimps seemed to be moved around as well without any sort of record made The Chimps Cooper Kobe and Kimmy who were originally mentioned in the first lawsuit seem to have disappeared from later paperwork The Chimps Kobe and Cooper were originally born on Connie's property and then sold as babies but they were later returned back to Connie once they reached sexual maturity and were too unruly for the owners to keep Cooper actually made a few headlines for being a chimp who liked to swim and he was also featured in the documentary America's most dangerous pets so Kobe and Cooper may have just been returned to their previous owner or they were transferred to a different facility but there just wasn't any record of it and it seems like there's nothing Peter can do about that because Connie had been transferring chimps to other facilities since the start which is probably why they thought transferring Connie's directly owned chimps into T's name would work the other missing chimp Kimmy was one of con's original wild CT breeding female chimps and she was 50 to 60 years old at the time that the lawsuit started that's Kimmy that was so Kimmy is the one that's 60 now yes so it is possible she just died during the duration of the lawsuit Connie still had Kimmy in 2018 and that is when she said her chimp population was at eight or nine so you still live with about eight or nine or chimps right and some other assorted right um monkeys and other animals but as of 2020 her chimp population was at 7 as per court documents she had the chimps Tonka Tammy candy Connor Carrie Michaela and Chloe then on June 30th 2020 there was another chimp Escape oh my God he's getting in the door oh he's robbing that oh oh my God a Facebook video documented the chimpanzee escaped Tuesday it's since been taken down but the evidence and these photos remain in a file at Jefferson County Animal Control you can see the animal try to get into a car before being taken back to its cage then a bit more than a month after that there was another chimp escape two chimps somehow escaped the facility early Sunday afternoon and animal control is still working to find them the two chimps were eventually located and tranquilized this was a scene earlier today in Jefferson County two chimpanzees escaped they got away from the Missouri primate foundation in Festus after a lock was left unsecured they were later tranquilized and captured Antonio believes Peter had something to do with unlocking the cages I believe Peter hired people to come in and unlock those cages I'm just going to tell you I do believe it's a pat attack and then in September 2020 there was an agreement made between T and the court she had had to give four of the seven chimps to a sanctuary she was okay with that as long as the chimps she had to give to a sanctuary didn't go to the save the chimp's sanctuary because a chimp once died under their care the sanctuary the center of great apes was nominated and despite the regular escapes ton was able to keep three of The Chimps but under three conditions in 8 months she had to construct a primate Dome with specific requirements she also had to start a nonprofit for the chimps and hire a fulltime caregiver T planned on making a nonprofit called chimp Hope International but all it ended up being was a Facebook group she allegedly spent $87,000 on a nigh house and some kind of primate dome but Peter deemed it was insufficient another problem was that she was required to report back to Peter with every bit of progress she made to ensure that she was holding up her end of the deal Peter and the court were hounding her for updates but she failed to provide any sufficient evidence she was making any progress court record Show hatic often responds to peta's requests for information with messages like you are not the police just a member of a terrorist group I am not your py nor slave and in April 2021 she was ready to give up I said come get your chimps I'm done I'm ready to walk away then in June 2021 a judge found T in contempt for violating the consent agreement that meant she had to give all seven of the remaining chimps to the center of great apes even the three she was originally going to be allowed to keep then she put her foot down and said they weren't getting any of the chimps then they're not getting the chimps they're not getting now I've decided I'm keeping all of them just for the principal of matter um because they don't deserve the chimp but in order for her to make any kind of stand at that point against Peter she needed a lawyer at that point she had been representing herself in court because she wasn't able to find a lawyer to take her case multiple times the judge urged her to find a lawyer they even extended the trial once just so she could try and find some legal advice but every time she would speak to somebody they just straight up refused she ended up getting rejected by 85 lawyers but she was actually eventually able to find a lawyer she sought out the help of John Pierce he was the lawyer to Kyle written house on July 27th 2021 they filed an emergency request to try and stop the transfer of The Chimps they tried to stop the transport of The Chimps because if one of The Chimps were harmed during it then T would suffer severe emotional harm but the very next day it was denied and the very same day Peter came to get the seven chimps but Peter only took six chimps because months earlier in May one of The Chimps named Tonka died of heart failure Tonka was probably the most famous Chimp on Connie's property and T claims to have found him just dead in his cage I found him in the cage it probably was Saturday late night but I found him Sunday whenever I went down there he do you stand by the assertion that Tonka is dead yes and as soon as Peter found out Tona had died they wanted some proof T basically said in court that she could not provide any evidence T's husband provided a signed affidavit that he burned tonka's body in a fire pit in their back yard at 1700° for 4 hours they even got a forensic anthropologist involved who said that nothing would remain of tonka's body but Ash so that is why T cannot provide any proof then the judge ruled in T's favor and said she wasn't in contempt of the consent agreement the judge said t makes stuff up a lot and it provided implausible evidence but it wasn't enough to prove that Tonka was alive the judge Jud said she would listen to new evidence but for the time being that was that at that point if Peter's suspicions were correct and T was hiding Tonka then T had gotten away with it but it wasn't over for Peter they were not convinced that Tonka had died in April 2022 they offered a $10,000 reward if anybody had any information about Tonka Alan [ __ ] who worked with Tonka on buddy also offered an additional $10,000 but things did begin to to unravel for T and it all The unravelling of Tonia started because almost a year earlier in April 2021 she was approached by a guy named Dwayne Cunningham he told her a pitch for a documentary that would support the private ownership of exotic animals she was apprehensive at first but he convinced her by expressing his love for animals and sometimes he would even show up early to her house to help bottle feed some of her baby animals apparently Dwayne kept tight lipped about where the financial backing for the documentary was coming from but he constantly assured her that the documentary was Pro private exotic animal ownership and that the crew all felt the same way but one day one of the crew members accidentally mentioned that a guy named Eric had some questions T immediately questioned if it was Eric good that they were referring to they said no but they wouldn't tell her his last name the reason why Eric good potentially being involved in the documentary raised some red flags for her was because he was the codirector of the documentary Tiger King and he had previously been accused of deceiving Carol Baskin into participating in the documentary under false pretenses so she was concerned the same thing was happening to her was later discovered the name of the company behind the documentary was Voice of America pro-animal ownership and it shared the the same address as one of Eric Good's companies called just voice of America so two companies that incorporate the same name as well as the same address out of the three crew members T identified two of them had Direct ties to Eric Goods total conservancy and one of those people were credited as a camera assistant on Tiger King so yeah T's concerns were Justified but she didn't realize that until later on on May 22nd 2022 she had a phone call with one of the crew members in that phone call she talked about tonka's declining health and that she was going to be euthanizing him on the 2nd of June so maybe we could come maybe we could come next week yeah uh yeah um let me ask you something you know um I had Casey out the other day on Mr T and he's in congest with heart fire again really bad and Casey wanted me to put him down the other day but I just couldn't do it so he um made an appointment for the 2nd of May um of June sorry um to be committed I mean he's gon to make me stand firm on that appointment um because he don't think I'm being fair to Tonka so what he would he would come there and give him give him the injection is that yeah he's supposed to be sending me some volume and stuff over so I could give it to him before he comes so he'll be relaxed you know and that's on the 2nd of June M which is today is the 22nd so that's like 10 days from now I didn't know if you'd want to be around then um yeah so Tonka was alive but apparently on death's door the crew member recorded the conversation and then somebody sent it to Peter when Peter got their hands on it they rushed it to court immediately knowing that he was soon going to be put down on June 1st at 4:20 p.m. the judge approved a rare motion that kept T in the dark to their findings until US Marshals showed up on her doorstep and that's what happened at 7 a.m. on June 2nd US Marshals broke down her front gate and then raided her home when they arrived Tanya slipped out the back to try and make a phone call to call for help she was trying to arrange somebody with a trailer to come quickly and pick up Tonka but one of the marshals saw her and confiscated her phone then she resorted to offering the marshals $10,000 each in cash she said I will give you a brick of $10,000 if you guys will just turn around and walk out and just tell them you did not find a chimpanzee here they did not accept her offer and found Tonka in her basement he was kept in a small cage surrounded by walls painted in primary colors yellow blue and red after that the marshals were required to remain on her property 24/7 until the sanctuary collected Tonka they were there for 72 hours standing guard over her property making sure she couldn't run off with Tonka she had to leave her door unlocked so that Marshalls could perform random checks to ensure that Tonka was still there t posted a video to social media of Tonka crying during the situation and this is how stressed out they make him there is absolutely nobody down there with him and he literally has gone ape he has cried cried and cried and they think this is not harming and harassing a chimp that is ill but the silver lining of course was that Tonka was finally free after spending 11 months in her basement it was later discovered that Tonka spent 5 months in T's basement not 11 basically while tonka's basement cage was under construction T made an 8-hour trip to Ohio in July 2021 which was several months before T publicly announced that Tonka had died and she made that journey to Ohio in a u Hall with Tonka it was illegal to take Tonka across state lines but she did it anyways she took Tonka to a roadside Zoo called Union Ridge Wildlife Center which was run by a guy named Sai VRA then in February 2022 the basement cage was complete so Sai sent Tonka back to T and actually a couple of years prior Sai was boarding three monkeys on his property for one of his friends and he didn't want to give those monkeys back so in order to keep them he faked their deaths anyway when Peter arrived at T's house they did an assessment of Ton's Health they did blood work an ultrasound and an EKG oh also tonka's vet also signed an affidavit that said that Tonka had heart failure which previously pointed the narrative in the direction that Tonka was in fact dead but Peter's vets couldn't find any evidence that Tonka had heart failure and they seriously questioned the credentials of the vet who had been checking up on Tonka they found that the vet mostly worked with farm animals and had no formal training when treating primates so Tonka was legitimately going to be put down based off of an incorrect diagnosis all Peter found in their tests was that Tonka needed some dental work and that he was Chimpanzee ownership needs to stop severely overweight when Tonka was deemed healthy enough to travel he was loaded up and taken to the Save The Chimps sanctuary if you remember that was the sanctuary T did not want any of the chimps to go to during the time Tonka was imprisoned in T's basement the center of great apes the sanctuary that the rest of of tonka's family went to reached maximum capacity so we had to go to the Save The Chimps Sanctuary So Not only was Tonka not going to the sory of T's choice but he was also going to remain separated from the rest of his family and really that is the most unfortunate part about this all and there is still hope that he will be reunited with the rest of his family when space opens up at the center of great apes the judge also ordered T to reimburse Peter over 200,000 in expenses and attorney fees that they spent trying to remove Tonka from her property also about the documentary T told Rolling Stone that she believes one of the crew members sent Peter that audio recording so that they could amp up the Project's drama and she vowed that she will make sure the project never comes out but a few weeks ago on social media she posted a photo with the camera crew still present so maybe maybe there wasn't any bad blood after all or maybe she's contractually obligated so it should be interesting to see what comes out in the documentary since the crew were clearly Disturbed with what T was doing there is hope that it will not be framed in the same way that Tiger King was framed oh and Connie actually goes to visit The Chimps at the center of great apes and they even send her photos and updates and everything both T and Connie are banned from ever owning chimps again but it's important to remember that even though the ground to zero for pet chimps in the United States met its downfall there are still hundreds of other chimps in private possession which is not good for those chimps no private owner is equipped to replicate the kind of standards that a chimp needs in the wild most primates live in large social groups and often engage in meaningful contact with other members of their troop most primates are deprived of that in a residential home as much as these owners like to try and convince themselves and others that their chimp likes to be alone they definitely don't it kind of hurts when you hear aligations people thinking that we're animal abusers here and we're not treating them properly a insists Tommy loves the Solitude and that his cage is licensed and inspected these are incredibly intelligent animals that do share almost 99% DNA with humans which is something that chimp owners use to try and justify the ownership of chimps that chimps shouldn't be pets they're dangerous they're animals and this is what can happen they're the closest thing to human the closest thing to us their DNA we can give them a blood transfusion they can give us one and that is exactly why chimps shouldn't be kept as pets they have better short-term memory than humans they can understand human sentences and learn sign language KY could you take my shoe off please you might need done TI it good job tattoo what color is the milk do you remember white yes you're so smart they have a sense of self and understand that when they look in a mirror it's themselves looking back at them they have culture they cooperate with each other it's been studied that chimps will fight their other the chimp friends in order to get experience to fight rival chimp troops they just have such complex cognitive abilities that they do not Thrive as pets and if any of these chimp owners were put in the position of the chimp they would not like it the older claims that Tommy he's very happy um what do you have to say to that I think that um uh if Tommy is so happy I think the owner should move in Joe Exotic is now in prison and is experiencing what his animals felt like to be locked up and he knows now that they do not like it after being locked up for 3 years I know now how my animal I'm ashamed of myself and other than the chimps welfare chimps being in a residential area pose a big Public Safety threat since 1990 over 300 people have reported being injured by a captive primate and not only do they pose a threat to people but also other pets owned by people three chimpanzees were trying to attack us they threw my dog across the backyard oh and that thud that they heard against the side of the trailer that was the chimp throwing their dog against it one time when he came in the house there was a little white poodle thing it just barked and barked and barked at this chimpanzee coming through the door he just picked it up and swung him against the wall he meant to shut the dog up but of course he killed the dog chimps should never be in a position where they're confronted by a pet dog or in the position to hurt a person or left alone in a dirty cage with no enrichment that is why it is so important that more states in the United States pass the captive primate safety act the captive primate safety act cracks down on the private possession of primates it prohibits the private possession and Interstate Commerce of non-human primates for the pet trade while many states already banned the private ownership of primates this act would strengthen those protections but some states have no protections in place at all if you live in the United States in one of these states that are green or yellow I need your help to do something very quickly please go to the world animal protection website I'll have the link in the description to the exact page put your details in and send a message in support of the captive primate safety act it already has a message prepared for you so all you have to do is click Send and it sends that message to the legislators in your area it won't take long at all and it is very important that this act passes to protect humans and primates because at the end of the day there is just no good reason why somebody needs to own a chimpanzee or some kind of other exotic animal the ownership of these animals always always comes back to a selfish raisin it's never in the best interest of the animal why do you have them this just something I always wanted to have ever since I was a little kid there's there's nothing better than a baby chip in your arms I really had the urge to acquire zebras in an interview with GQ Justin Bieber said people are always like why did you get a monkey if you could get a monkey well you would get a effing Monkey Too monkeys are awesome most of the people that say I want to buy a tiger are what you could classify as impulse buyers chimpanzee and exotic animal ownership is cruel unnecessary and the animal always suffers