What happened to Tonka? Missouri chimp at center of court battle is missing -- or dead
A federal judge in St. Louis has been grappling with a peculiar question in recent months: Is the celebrity chimpanzee at the center of a high-profile legal battle dead? Or did a Missouri woman fake his death to avoid turning him over to an animal sanctuary?
The chimp in question is Tonka, who became friends with Hollywood luminaries including Alan Cumming while co-starring in the 1997 film “Buddy.” Years after the film, Cumming has said he was shocked to learn Tonka was living in a cage in Festus, Missouri. While Tonka was ostensibly housed by the nonprofit Missouri Primate Foundation, PETA alleged in court filings that the “foundation” was actually a series of “barren and unsanitary enclosures,” a violation of chimps’ protected status under the Endangered Species Act.
After U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry declined to dismiss PETA’s claims, the parties came to a settlement: The Missouri Primate Foundation would surrender some of the chimps in its care and make a series of specific upgrades to its facility.
The organization failed to do so. That’s when Perry ruled that it needed to surrender all the chimps still on site, including Tonka. But when it came time to turn them over, Tonia Haddix of the Missouri Primate Foundation said she wouldn’t, and couldn’t, turn over Tonka. She claimed he was dead.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2022-01-20/what-happened-to-tonka-missouri-chimp-at-center-of-court-battle-is-missing-or-dead
= new reply since forum marked as read
Are just SO fucked up in the head when it comes to caring for other species. 
