‘Chimp Crazy’ Inspires $10,000 Reward for Tips That Help Free Local Chimpanzees, Sparks Push for Primate ‘Pet’ Ban
For Immediate Release:
September 9, 2024
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
On the heels of Sunday’s finale of Chimp Crazy—the HBO docuseries that highlights the dangers and cruelty inherent in private ownership of chimpanzees—PETA is offering a $10,000 reward for evidence that results in the confiscation by law-enforcement authorities of Ricky and the two other chimpanzees held captive at Pam Rosaire’s secretive compound in Sarasota. Chimp Crazy revealed that another chimpanzee, Chance, died there of unknown causes at just 15 years old after appearing in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street and being forced to perform tricks at the Rosaire family’s shoddy roadside zoo, Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary.
The group is also urging people to support the new bipartisan Captive Primate Safety Act, which would prohibit private ownership, private breeding, and all commercial activity involving primates used in the pet trade. PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet—who appears in Chimp Crazy and worked on the cases featured in it—is available for interviews. Peet could share behind-the-scenes details, explain why people should support the proposed legislation, and talk about PETA’s reward and other work to rescue chimpanzees still languishing in concrete pens and barren cages.
“Chimp Crazy pulls back the curtain on a seedy industry in which unhinged humans, hell-bent on exploiting chimpanzees as props and ‘pets,’ are willing to defy authorities and endanger everyone around them,” says Peet. “PETA encourages everyone who was moved by the tragic stories featured in Chimp Crazy to contact their legislators and urge them to cosponsor the Captive Primate Safety Act.”
PETA has facilitated the rescues of 24 chimpanzees—including seven who, having been held in solitary confinement, were given the opportunity to thrive in a sanctuary environment with other chimpanzees. The group is also offering reward money for information leading to the confiscation of Bow, a chimpanzee held in isolation in the home of Aya Katz in Raymondville, Missouri, and Limbani, a chimpanzee kept in isolation at Zoological Wildlife Foundation, a roadside zoo in Miami. The reward also applies to any of the other (fewer than 100) chimpanzees across the U.S. still confined to roadside zoos or exploited in the pet trade. Anyone with information can report tips using this web form.
The Captive Primate Safety Act was recently reintroduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.-03) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.-01). The legislation is cosponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.-01) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.-02).
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
