Rescue Rebels
From hermit crabs, to horses, Rescue Rebels covers the good, bad and the ugly of the modern age animal rescue craze. Is it a lifestyle, hobby, a scam or something entirely different? We're here to flip your ideals upside down and break into a whole new idea. Rescue is Rebellion.
Rescue Rebels
017 | Fake (BLEEP) Chimp Sanctuary
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Hey Rebels! This week Abbi has more Chimp Crazy stuff coming your way. So strap in. We are hiding chimps in basements now to evade investigators? Or just suing people because your chimp got loose on THEIR property? It's wild.
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Special Thanks to Nick Panek for music sourced through Pixabay.Com
This episode is intended to be for educational purposes and personal opinions only. The content herein does not reflect on organizations mentioned within the episode.
Hey guys, it's O. It's Sammy, and welcome to Rescue Rebels. So last week we are coming to you guys with an Abbey special that just seems to be focused around chimpanzees.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know what it is with me and chimpanzees right now. And they are not my favorite animal.
SPEAKER_02So well, at least, you know, you can talk about it, and it'll it'll be good. And there is absolutely no animal news updated from when we last brought animal news to you. So I doubt there's gonna be much gabbing going on, other than the fact that we have once again a live human audience.
SPEAKER_00Woohoo! There's like the fake applause button. Yeah, we need your fake applause button.
SPEAKER_02Maybe we'll get one of those. The soundboard was supposed to like have that capability, but it wasn't like listening to it. It wouldn't work.
SPEAKER_00It wouldn't work. It was weird.
SPEAKER_02So we don't have a sound button. Hey, if you want to donate your time to being like a sound tech and you wanna and you're smart with that stuff and you wanna help our little podcast out, hit us up.
SPEAKER_00Rescuerablespod at gmail.com. We can't pay you.
SPEAKER_02But like even if you could just teach us, yeah, yeah, that'd be like and not cost us hundreds and hundreds of dollars in equipment because we just need like and nothing huge either. Like we don't need this huge Yeah, I don't want to be walking in here because we yeah, we swap between houses to do this.
SPEAKER_00We are not like special enough to have a pod lab. No, no pod labs the big people do, but maybe someday, maybe someday we'll be big enough to have a pod lab.
SPEAKER_02We can do this full-time and get paid for it. Probably not because people don't like animal rights. I mean, animal activists like animal rights, but like the greater human race, like they don't want to be faced with the horrible tracks of what they're doing to our planet every single day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So with that, is there anything going on in your life that's new?
SPEAKER_00I just brought my finger making biscuits.
SPEAKER_02Yep, you were telling me about that. And then I told her about when my finger went through my spring roll that was fresh out of the oven and fully encased in like hot steaming cabbage.
SPEAKER_00Hot.
SPEAKER_02It was not fun. So we're both injured, but only on like you know, one singular full angie.
SPEAKER_00It's totally fine. I I can get through it.
SPEAKER_02All right, so start us off with trigger warnings today, Abby, and you may lead us into this is there's a lot to go through.
SPEAKER_00And I tried my best to organize it the best to my ability. So there will be talk of animal abuse and cruelty, like pretty much any other. I had to put it down because I was like my nose was breathing into it, and I gotta lean in a little bit.
SPEAKER_02I'm just looking at your sound waves and they're like oh okay.
SPEAKER_00So, of course, animal abuse is in here, and yeah, there's nothing really disgusting that like no mutilation or anything like the last. Not stabbing the chimps with a butcher knife? No, no, no. It's good. There is a small talk of a moment in this story where a chimpanzee does get shot and injured. And I added that story because it's crucial. Well, I feel like it's not crucial, but an important part of like the whole overall story.
SPEAKER_02Well, the first thing really is that we shouldn't be put in positions where we have to shoot chimps, period.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02You know, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's just like when I get to that story in here, it's just it's crazy. Just like, and I didn't do, I just gave a small bit of information on it. Okay. Because I'm like, oh, we could probably even go deeper into this.
SPEAKER_02You guys are gonna be so tired of chimps.
SPEAKER_00There are so many vibes on this, like it's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Maybe we'll leave it to the documentary people, because there was that Chimp Crazy documentary. Did you hear about that?
SPEAKER_00That's what is I had to stop because I was about to watch it, and I'm like, I don't have the time for this. I need to go to bed. Like, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, let's go.
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna start off with saying that since Connie Casey and her husband started this in 1998, I believe, there has been 17 violations, probably more, but the only ones that I could find was 17 violations from the USD USDA. And in 2014, there were five total violations throughout that whole year. And the biggest one, and I'm saying this just so you guys can get the picture of how these animals were treated, and a lot of these violations are repeated violations. So I'm gonna read the most detailed one out of the vi out of these 17 violations, and it is one of the ones that happened in 2014. So the USDA cited MPF, and that's the Missouri Primate Foundation or Chim Party, they're calling them both, which I like because sneaky, sneaky business was happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and we need to make sure that those two are closely related because they're the same people, right?
SPEAKER_00Okay, the same people owned both. So they cited M MPF for re repeating violations for failing to keep up the following clean. Shelters had buildup waste material, enclosures housing primates, held multiple piles of waste that were scattered around the floor. The tunnels that were in the enclosures for enrichment were filthy and accumulating trash and waste, enclosures with d deteriorating food waste, enclosures with filled up black grimy materials on bars, pipes, brown black color that was covered with flies and viewing rooms that contained several buckets of what's the uh the like when you have a whole bunch of miscellaneous like I don't know, molasses? I don't know what you're you have buckets of molasses. Oh my gosh. Okay, so full of miscellaneous items. So MPF slash chim party was also cited for failing to have proper ventilation in rooms with strong odor of feces and ammonia that was housing animals, failing effective pest control program for control on numerous roast roaches, flies, and rodents throughout the whole facility.
SPEAKER_02You know you got a problem when you got roaches.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So so we're gonna start from the beginning. But you know I like to get all the little nitty-gritty. So you know all about Connie. Chim Party or MPF started in 1972 in Festus, Missouri at the res Huh. Sorry, I was just laughing about the term Festus. I know. It's Festus. I keep I keep thinking of like Uncle Fester the whole time.
SPEAKER_02Festival.
SPEAKER_00So at the residence of Mike and Connie Casey. So they did this on their property shortly after their first purchase of two wild caught chimpanzees. That's right, wild caught, which they named Susie and Coco. Hey. Do those two names ring a bell? Yeah. In your ear, head or whatever. Those two are the parents of Travis from our previous story.
SPEAKER_02Chimps and polos.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Shortly after acquiring the two, they had this brilliant idea to make big money fast. They thought that breeding and selling the offspring from chimps would be a great business opportunity. Among purchasing more chimps and having the same acts repeated over and over again. Not just that alone is horrible. The fact that they most likely forced the couple to make steal the babies from Susie and other unnamed chimps multiple times is horrific. Imagine being locked up in a cage with no way to get out, no enrichment or proper food and sanitation, forced to get pregnant and have your baby taken away from you over and over again. Huh? It's legit like you were kidnapped. Yeah. Like it's like baby farming.
SPEAKER_02Have you heard the episode on the morbid podcast about baby farming?
SPEAKER_00I'm thinking of these women who get stolen off the street by creeps and locked in a basement. It's similar.
SPEAKER_02So baby farming is essentially the same thing. You just you bring in an underprivileged woman who back in that era would have been, you know, looked down upon for being pregnant out of wedlock. You then allow her to deliver her baby and then you adopt her or sell her baby. Like, or you keep the baby yourself and get paid by the government to take care of said child. Like it's insane.
SPEAKER_00Um exactly what it is. Yeah, so I was just like, it's just like another true crime documentary for these chimps.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, this is messed up. Yeah. Um, so the Casey's per purchases were all mainly wild caught, which they two were breeding among other things.
SPEAKER_02Does it do you get into where they sourced them from? Like, because obviously it's gonna have to be Africa, right? Yeah, if they're wild caught, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Like were they like buying them black market off from like cultures or something?
SPEAKER_02I would assume.
SPEAKER_00Like all it specified was wild caught. Yeah, wasn't sent to purchase.
SPEAKER_02I guess when you have enough money, you can do whatever the hell you want. But wild. Okay.
SPEAKER_00The primates were kept in the home and other structures on the Casey's property. These animals were kept in small dirty cages or rooms that were converted for the specific animal. The basement had cages and also housed other chimps. The home was reported to have an addition added to the house for that housed other primates. Some chimps were kept as pets and others were bred and sold. None of the animals on the property were none of the animals on the property were kept in rooms, cages, whatever you want to call it, that were big enough or clean enough. Everything lacked when it came to this place. The USDA started in on their violations on Chimpardi just a year after they started in 1998 to 2016. There were 17 violations. I talked about that. It was I was able to find stating, you know, blah blah blah, the lack of retrenchment and how nasty the place was. Everything about the place was obviously one big violation. And for basically 20 years, they let the Caseys, well, at least Connie, get rich off of this horrific abuse.
SPEAKER_02So they were following them and regularly, because I do know that legally the USDA, when they begin and open an investigation, legally they have to allow the party that is being cited correct their mistakes so many times. Like I think it's like three, and like after three failures to fix whatever violation, then the animals are removed. But clearly at this point, that was not I mean, that's a long time span. Yeah. But then I I also wonder, I get into the the head of the USDA agent who is normally dealing with cows, chickens, goats, what have you, pigs, what have you.
SPEAKER_00Not dealing with exotic.
SPEAKER_02What would I do if I walked in and there were just these cages and cages of chimps? Like, how would I go about being like, we gotta get these chimps out of here? Where are they gonna go? What are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like we get into that. We get into that. Okay, all right, let's go. So the Casey's would also rent out baby chimps for TV film productions and kids' birthday parties.
SPEAKER_02What here, Sally, sit on Travis's lap and take a picture. So weird.
SPEAKER_00Hope that he doesn't rip your hair off or scalp you or so. Jim Party also became the main resource for film production and entertainment on exotic animals.
SPEAKER_02Gross. Do we have a list of movies that they supported?
SPEAKER_00We could probably We need to do that. We could probably look it up. Yeah. So who's to say that that wasn't or was buying wild primates and reselling them? So I think that they were like just buying like black market primates and then like training them and then flipping them.
SPEAKER_02Gimp flipper.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a chimp flipper. That's the that's the title right there. Connie Casey, chimp flipper extraordinaire. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02And again, we're not laughing because like it's funny. We're laughing because you have to bring humor into this to survive it.
SPEAKER_00We do because I'm just a disclaimer, we're gonna always we're gonna laugh and we're gonna make fun of these people because they're the only way to get through it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, humor. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00So thankfully, the laws and regulations tightened up around 2015 and the selling of these animals for entertainment purposes slowed down significantly. I couldn't find if it stopped completely. However, like other parts of this story, I highly doubted that it stopped the Casey's from making any sell they thought was justifiable or ethical in any way.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, look at it.
unknownIt's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So obviously it's not completely dead.
SPEAKER_00So at one time the Casey's owned 42 chimps, among other a lot that's literal 42 like human beings. Like yeah, and if you look like you can look up their like area that they lived on, it wasn't large.
SPEAKER_02There's probably like a subdivision like all the sub party this like housing development.
SPEAKER_00So among other life in the primate family, like lemurs, baboons, and capinchins, capuchins, capuchins, yeah, capuchins, capuchins. Man, you look at it and it does not like you struggle, okay? Those they own, they just didn't own and resell. That's all these freaking exotic animal crazy people. Yeah, like everybody's like chimps, chimps, chimps, chimps, chimps. They had other primates.
SPEAKER_02They have unicorns, they have freaking everything. On what in what they had at certain times. Okay, I got you.
SPEAKER_00And that was really hard for me to find out. Uh so all the primates that were on the property were solely taken care of by the Caseys. That's it's clear that they did not do nearly close to anything that was needed for the care of these animals, and the Casey's would never hire anyone, or and I could only find one volunteer that worked for the Casey's and helped them care for the animals on the property. Her name is Angela Scott. Not much is known of her other than she was a volunteer towards the end of Shim Party, or later named Missouri Primate Foundation. And she played a small but important role in helping to shut this shithole down.
SPEAKER_02Good. Good for you.
SPEAKER_00What was your name again? Angela.
SPEAKER_02Angela. Way to go, Angela. Yeah. So you'll see this in a lot of rescues. If a rescue sanctuary or organization, I'm gonna get in my soapbox here for a minute, does not allow anyone but the husband and wife or very close founders into their facility, they are hiding something. Because volunteers are gonna be the whistleblowers. If they see something that they feel is wrong, they're gonna go to the authorities. So if there is nobody but, say, like husband and wife, or just the founder, and there's no one else ever stepping foot on that property, something's going on. Period.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Period. There has to be other people hooking their peepers on those animals. And then I also just want to comment how much effort it takes to take care of 80, 84 animals. You have literally, and I'm gonna call them human being-like because they have needs closest to a human being. They are the size closest to a human being. Can you imagine being one person taking care of 42 whole ass human being-like hard?
SPEAKER_00It would be so hard. Like, I don't want to say it's impossible, and I talk about this, but it takes organization still like so like a tight running ship. Because there's been times where me and you have been left alone to take care of dozens and dozens of large animals, and we made it through, but you had to work all day non-stop. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, so and it's dangerous, and those horses don't need, like, as an example, don't need the same level of like interaction that a chimpanzee's gonna need. A chimpanzee's needs are way different than 50 plus horses, you know, they can get socialization from each other, etc. I'm gonna go on a tangent, but just keep going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and a lot of them weren't like housed together.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, because you're only gonna want the ones that you want mating, mating with each other. And if you think a bunch of chimpanzees ain't gonna be like throwing wild sex parties at your mistaken. Chimps gonna do what chimps gonna do.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna take you guys on a little timeline journey here for to the best of my ability, with important information that all piled up and played roles in the downfall of this horrific business. I feel that I gave you enough backstory to that we now can start to discuss some public details that are out there for anyone to look into. So it's 1992. Mike Casey, the still then husband slash partner of Connie, had his nose bit off by a chimpanzee. Yeah. I did read somewhere that Connie had to go back into the cage to retrieve his nose. Lucky she got it. At least she got it, because I'm talking over here. I'm thinking, no, Coco, no, no. I'm like feeling my nose, and I'm like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02That feels kind of give me the nose, Coco.
SPEAKER_00Give me the nose.
SPEAKER_03Stop it.
SPEAKER_02That kind of feels like a nice little snack. Like just pinch your nose for a second.
SPEAKER_00I don't even want to think about it. So it took multiple surgeries to fix his face. And when trying to find more information on this smaller story, I couldn't find much. And I guess there is the documentary called Chimp Crazen. For some reason, every time I tried to Google or research anything, they would just give me that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they want you to watch it. And maybe we will.
SPEAKER_00And I'm just like, give me the details.
SPEAKER_02We could do a bonus episode and talk about gym crazy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, where we watch it and then we talk about our reactions. Yes, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02You could just we could just film it and then like snip parts out of like our reactions. That's probably a copyright issue, anyways.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I couldn't get any more information with all the rabbit holes with this story on chimparty slash mpf. Because trust me, it's like every other story we do. It just leads you into another and another and another. You're like, when does it stop? So I'm trying not to give too much information on other stories that we could possibly do them down the road. So here's another story that is actually a bit has a bit more information than Mike getting his nose bit off, which he definitely deserved. Yeah. And you'll and you'll find out why. So we're gonna jump. Head to the year 2001. To the year 3000. Oh, sing it. A 17-year-old boy named Jason Coates was living his life like any other day. And little did he little did what and little You got this.
SPEAKER_02Power through.
SPEAKER_00Oh, who knows?
SPEAKER_02Little did he know.
SPEAKER_00Little did he know what was, you know, and I was just adding extra words in here that made no sense. Little did he know he was going to have to do for the for at least what he felt like he had to do. And honestly, probably the scariest moment in his life. Three chimps, including Susie, yes, Travis's mother, got out of their cages from the Casey's property and wandered their way onto the Coates family property. I think they were neighbors. They lived in the house.
SPEAKER_02I would be so I'd be so mad.
SPEAKER_00So one of the chimps attacked Jason's friends and his dog.
SPEAKER_01Not the dog.
SPEAKER_00Jason went to retrieve a shotgun for himself for self-defense and fired at Susie. Sadly, Susie was severely wounded and later had to be put down. Coates said, I quote, I didn't think I was going to jail. I didn't anticipate much of anything initially. He also stated, I quote, I figured Connie let the chimps loose. I was forced to shoot one. I'm the one who called the police. I'm the one who defended myself because of her actions. And quote, sadly that's not how it how this went down for for the for the sadly that's not how it how this went down. The Casey's went after Jason Coates, a 17-year-old boy, for trying to protect himself. And Jason was prosecuted with felony property damage and animal abuse charges. That wasn't enough for the Casey's, and they lobbied for the charges to be upgraded. The Caseys also took out ads in the newspaper and even posted signs on their property, making it sound like Jason was an evil murderer. This was one of the ones I wanted to keep going on, but look it up if you're interested. There is more to that story. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02One time, a long time ago, before our entire property was fenced, the horses got out and they ran through my neighbor's yard and punched holes, big holes, craters in their yard. And I said, Oh my gosh, I must take responsibility for what the animals have done. I am their steward. They have damaged your property. Let me I will fix that. Yeah, what do you need for so I put topsoil into the holes, dug up my own sod, and put sod back in the holes. Because I'm a responsible human being and should be able to contain my damn animals.
SPEAKER_00At least it wasn't like a chimp. Like I'm gonna rip you the whole guy.
SPEAKER_02No, right? Like that's crazy. Okay, so so they launched a criminal animal cruelty case. Yeah, and he got jail time for a chip. And he got jail time for shooting a chimp to protect himself because to protect himself, his friend and their dog. I think he had two friends with him must be nice to have friends in high places, Connie. Damn.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then the slanderless poor 17-year-old boy name throughout their whole town saying that your chimp ends up on my property and starts tearing my animals apart.
SPEAKER_02I am going to do what I have to do to protect them. I'm sorry. I really would hope that I would never be faced with the city.
SPEAKER_00But like exactly like you gotta think of what he went through, how scared he was. Like sometimes you just react and you don't even know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like yeah, that's in the sanctuary. Well, in my sanctuary community, I always say you're given a shit sandwich, and the only way to eat this one bite at a time, so you just take it step by step, and sometimes it's very unpleasant because it's a shit sandwich, so like it's not gonna be fun no matter what.
SPEAKER_00Like it it sucks either way. Like he he didn't want to do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm sure he didn't want to shoot the chimp, like nobody wants to.
SPEAKER_00But like when it's attacking your friends and your dog, and then it's like whatever the situation went down, you can probably look it up.
SPEAKER_02That sucks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so now we're at the divorce of Mike and Connie. So in 2009 to 2010, Mike and Connie were involved in a bitter divorce. It sounds like Mike ran off to Hollywood with some of their best money-making chimpanzees. New nose knew me. Yeah. So one of the one in particular that was possibly born on the property, his name was Eli, and they fought over who should have custody of him through their divorce. There were also reports of Mike being verbally and physically abusive to animals on the property, and/or when Mike would be out with animals for business. That's why he lost his nose. Yeah. That's why I said he deserved it. I'm sure Connie tried to use this against Mike in court to help better her chances on getting the animals Mike left with back on her property. Mike later dropped the battle over Eli after it was proven that the animal did not belong to him. Not much was else was said on this. Connie at some point left, was left alone to care for all of whoever, however many, whatever 48 human beings or whatever house primates she was buying off the blend.
SPEAKER_02Now she's by herself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so she's by herself. Oh, that's right. But clearly from the beginning, nothing was done right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, whether you think it's gonna change now that she's there.
SPEAKER_00Definitely not, it's gonna get worse. So from the violations from the USDA and the continued inspections they did with the abusive husband out of the parake out of the parecchar. Out of the parkshariks. Harassment on a young teenage boy who was trying to protect himself, friends, and dog. Oh, and don't forget complaints. Complaints that were made from buyers. So the buyer, like like Travis. Yes, turn it up share on the card. Yeah, that and there was other reports of animals, like the buyers buying animals, and the animals weren't like well trained and they were acting like wild animals. Yeah, yeah. So that's what happens when you buy a wild animal, that's gonna act like wild animals. Thanks. So where was I? Yeah. And the divorce was just and it was just before the divorce when Connie changed the name Ju Chim Party to Prime to Missouri Primate Foundation. The mission of MPF was to be a safe haven for chimps who need to retire from being bought and sold and performed.
SPEAKER_02There are people out there that do that. They say, Oh, I'll rescue all of these animals, and then they just use them for whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Don't fall for it.
SPEAKER_00She was trying to make herself with all the bad slander she was getting. She was trying to get turned over a new leaf. Yes, this is a sanctuary now. Yeah, a lot of people do that. So with all the awful media out there that was the that was linked to her business, she was trying to do what she could to make her image look better, which is never looked good from the beginning. Nope. And thanks to Angela Scott, the solely volunteer, noticed that Chim Party slash MPV was MPF. I don't know why I'm on MPV. MPV, MPF was still very active behind the scenes. So she's like, hmm. Okay. So obviously the new and improved Missouri Primate Foundation was a complete joke. So now we're gonna talk about Angela Scott. She started to volunteer at Chim Party slash MPF at the age of 19. She worked on and off for Connie for six years. With that, with that amount of time and obviously love for animals, because normal animal lovers just don't dedicate their free time to volunteer at shelters, sanctuaries, farms, whatever it may be, let alone one that contains large exotic animals, without being a lover of animals in some way. Yeah, true. She, of course, bonded with the animals she cared for, building connections with them. And I'm sure when Angela first met Connie, Connie lied and made it sound like what she was doing for the primates was the very best thing for them. Which, though, which through the years she sadly found out how awful Tim Party slash MPF was, and she was gonna do her part to help stop it.
SPEAKER_02I said, You go, girl, be a rebel. Yeah, be a rebel. And let me just talk for a second sometimes why it takes whistleblowers so long to come to the come to the forefront, because look at what she did to that boy. The slander she was probably scared. She was number one, she was probably scared. And she probably wanted to make sure she had enough evidence, which sometimes can take years to collect. And so we're looking at if Angela, and I'm not saying she wasn't, I'm just saying if Angela's smart enough, which I think I believe she was, she was like, I gotta make sure that before I blow this out of the water, like I have her on everything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, to make it stick, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because whistleblowing is dangerous, and especially when people have a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00And clearly she gets someone involved.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Okay, let's go. So let's hear.
SPEAKER_00So during her time there, she was often the only caregiver for dozens of the primates. She witnessed firsthand the mental and physical decline of the animals she cared for and the decline of the place she worked in. I don't want to say that it's impossible to take care of dozens of large animals on your own. We have both been there. You know, we had talked about this. It just takes a lot of work ethic and it is doable. It just takes a lot of organ organization and a lot of different skills. But however, it is good to have a team that works with you, and it is very dangerous to be alone when working with any large animals. Angela had enough of the conditions of the animals and the conditions these animals were living in. Angela secretly filmed videos, took pictures of filth, confin confinement and abuse, and the abuse of the animals during say all that.
SPEAKER_02No, just say during.
SPEAKER_00During the animals were enduring. Okay, okay. Which then she provided to Pita for her. Hey yo! Yeah. The homie G's. So in 2016, PETA and Angela Scott sent a notice to Connie Casey for intent to sue. Connie was violating the Endangered Species Act for the way she was caring for and treating the animals on her property. So that was the first step they had to take to get into. So there's a lot of legal terminology that started coming into play here, and I'm like, I don't know what none of this means. So, which Connie was faking to be MPF. Of course, we know this. For about another six years, Pita and Angela never stopped fighting for the primates who were still at chimparty slash MPF. They are now rushing now. We are rushing into the year 2018. A woman named Tanya Haddock's calls Connie Casey. It's Connie Casey essentially looking for to buy a baby, chimp.
SPEAKER_01Tonya.
SPEAKER_00Tanya Tony Tony. Tonya, it's Tony.
SPEAKER_01Tanya, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Whoever. This lady who's called. Miss Haddock's. Yeah, I call her Haddock's from now. Okay. Yeah. She's still alive and out here kicking. She might come for us.
SPEAKER_02Whatever.
SPEAKER_00Be ready.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. She's gonna send her chimp to something. Next day in the news. Podcasters mauled by rabid chimps. Sorry, no, that's not funny. Okay, keep going.
SPEAKER_00The two women must have started goofing and gaffing on the phone. Conversation because the call didn't end with Haddock's purchasing a baby chip. Chimp. It ended with Haddock's taking over management of MPF for Connie. And to assist-just a phone call? That's what it seems like. I don't know. It wasn't specific, but I liked my theory. So I'm gonna do it. We'll never know the truth. To assist Connie in any way possible.
SPEAKER_02She just wanted her hand on chimps, man. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, to assist her in any way possible and to disrupt the lawsuits against Chimpardi slash MPF. Which were essentially against Connie, of course, because she owned the business. So in 2019, Haddock's was added as a party in the legal battles over the chimpanzees. Why would you wanna why would you want to enter that? She thought, and you can look this up. I watched her like a little snippet video of her saying, I was just trying to make it so the chimps could like stay on their on their home, the only place they've ever known.
SPEAKER_02The shittiest home ever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay, cool. So thanks, Tonya. So, which I think at that time there was no other primates at the facility, only chimpanzees. But who really knows? A lot of shady and sneaky stuff was happening in the story. We are now in 2020. Haddock's entered a consent agreement to transfer ownership of several chimps to two different sanctuaries in Florida. Haddocks had retained ownership of other chimps at the time, and they had to be kept at MPF so they could keep going and making sure she was doing what she was doing to keep everything clean and making sure they were getting proper enrichment and so on and so on and so on. Okay. Heddocks had baggage of her own, and authorities were looking for her own privately owned chimp named Hanka. Oh, this is the one where she was just wait. Yeah. All of this was going on. I didn't get deep into it because I want to do a story, huh?
SPEAKER_02Okay, we're just Abby's just gonna be the chimp.
SPEAKER_00We're just going on a chimp thing, man. So our own so she had her privately owned chimed Tonka during all this going on. She told the authorities or whoever was trying to find and make sure Tonka was being cared for properly that he passed away. That he was dead. They were like, she's he's dead.
SPEAKER_02That wasn't that was a lie. Spoiler alert, he's not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but that's a story for another time. Yes, it is. Sorry! I want to tell people We went so it was Pita and Scott against Casey and Haddock's to dumb it down for you. A lot of legal names and terminology here.
SPEAKER_02So it was like something against people versus whatever, you know, and yeah, well, because you have to be like the the general public versus Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So final court order. And it seemed to have happened pretty quickly because Tanya took you know over in what? It was like 2018. 2018. And then in 2021, okay, July 30th, 2021, after Haddock's failed to meet safety and housing requirements, court ordered for her to keep the remaining chimps at MPF. The federal judge ordered the removal of all remaining chimpees on that date. Immediate. Immediately, they were done. That's surprising. They had, I think they didn't name the sanctuaries, probably because they didn't want the crazy to know where the chimps were going.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But they did say that they are Florida sanctuaries.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00And the Florida sanctuaries did say that they would take the remaining chimps when the time came because everybody knew it was coming. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Usually you have all of those levels of like ready to pull the trigger, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So U.S. Marshals oversaw the removal of those animals, and MPF was officially disbanded. The remaining chimps went to the sanctuaries in Florida in June of 2022, pretty much a year after the rescue of the remaining chimps. They found Tonka alive and well in Haddock's basement. Yep. Just chilling. She was setting she would play YouTube for him. Like those horrible YouTube videos for kids. She's given this poor chimpanzee Tonka autism.
SPEAKER_02Tell us how you really think. I can't say that though, because you have an autistic child. We're not laughing about autism, guys. We're just laughing at the fact that autistic kids like YouTube.
SPEAKER_00They do. Yeah. And Tonka was released, released from Haddock's and was able to retire to live the rest of his days at one of the Florida sanctuaries. Drop the mic. I'm done. That was crazy.
SPEAKER_02And it's only gonna get crazier, right? Because you're gonna talk about I'm gonna do probably two more on Facebook. Okay. We'll break it up with some like non-chimp stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let me like have a like a good like probably couple weeks to write a good yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy, yeah. We'll probably end up getting a long one. This ended up being 40 minutes long. See? Yeah. Good job.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, thank you guys so much for listening. Please follow us on Instagram at Rescue Rebels Pod. If you leave us a five-star rating, send us an email at rescuerebelspod at gmail.com so that you can get a free sticker. Make sure that you send us your mailing address because we can't send it to you if we don't know where to mail it to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And we are going to let us know if you want coats or haddocks next.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or maybe I can find more about how messed up Mike Casey is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like he was doing some like maybe like shake out time stuff. So yeah, leave us a review, leave us comments on what you want to hear next. We are always welcome to take fan mail. Let us know what you want to hear because we're here for you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And we're just dissecting the animal abuse and exploitation industry. One episode of that. So thank you so much for listening. And remember that rescue is ballot. I've got to be a fact.