Alan Cumming’s Buddy Co-Star Tonka The Chimp Found Alive After Long Search
After being feared dead for a year, Alan Cumming's chimp co-star from 1997's Buddy has been found alive, secretly kept at the private home of Tonia Haddix. Haddix, the owner of the Missouri Primate Foundation, had been court-ordered to turn over Tonka and six other chimpanzees last year after citing the Foundation for numerous violations of the Endangered Species Act. This included illegally breeding the animals and renting them out to private parties, as well as keeping them in cramped, cockroach-infested enclosures. The news comes hot on the heels of yesterday's arrest of Doc Antle, another controversial zookeeper, and the subject of Netflix's most recent Tiger King season.
In 2021, when PETA intervened to rescue the chimps from the Missouri Primate Foundation, only six could be found. It was then that Haddix claimed Tonka suffered a stroke and died from heart failure at an earlier time, so she disposed of his body in a fire pit. However, her claims could not be substantiated and details of the body's disposal varied over time. PETA issued a reward of $10,000 for any information on Tonka, news of which caught the attention of Alan Cumming, who had befriended the animal on the set of the family film Buddy. In a strange mirroring, Buddy is about a wealthy animal hoarder who almost refuses to take an unruly ape named Buddy to a sanctuary until it's almost too late. Cumming matched PETA's award sum to raise awareness of his missing friend, in the hopes any information, or a final resting place, could be found for Tonka.
Related: The Doc Antle Story Is The Worst Tiger King Follow-Up Yet
A tweet from PETA confirms a thankfully positive end to this story, saying " WE FOUND TONKA," along with a picture of the chimp. A
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