San Antonio Current - NEWS+FEATURES: The Queque - September 8, 2010
Orphanage’ on ropes
As the Wild Animal Orphanage works to find new homes for its hundreds of charges — tigers, bears, monkeys — those doing the relocation work are expressing concern about the condition of the animals held there and how various illnesses may affect their relocation chances.
According to a June USDA inspection report, buried among a string of “repeat” violations was a note about feeding. The large carnivores did not have any meat on site. While some chicken arrived during the inspection, it “was not of sufficient quality or nutritive value for all the large cats.” While that could lead to problems over time, more immediate illnesses lurk. Macaque monkeys purposefully injected with hepatitis in research labs before finding shelter in Northwest Bexar County, for instance, will need specially trained and permitted handlers to care for them.
For those of you who’ve been sleeping through the local news cycle, the Current reported on its blog Sunday that the long-troubled WAO at the edge of Northwest San Antonio has decided to close its doors. A formal press release is expected this week.
“Due to our overpopulation, [and the fact that] we don’t have the ability to care for the animals in the manner that we would prefer, we’ve decided to dissolve the orphanage and find new homes [for the animals],” WAO secretary Suzanne Straw told the QueQue on Saturday. “WAO is cooperating with the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Charitable Trust Division in their ongoing investigation of WAO. That’s been going on for many years and we’re partnering with them on how to best handle the situation. They have not put any demand on us. But even for a couple of months before this vote was cast, we were in the process of finding homes for as many of our animals as we could.”
While a Current writer had to absorb many bracing insults online for suggesting a week ago the sanctuary was most likely on the edge of abandon, the pain will certainly be soothed when all those TV news reports open with “first reported by the San Antonio Current … ”
The WAO holds roughly 400 animals. While Straw told the QueQue that most of the animals have been moved (or are in the process of being relocated), sources involved in that process are saying very few, if any, have been moved yet. That only about one-third have been “potentially” placed. One would think the WAO board would be taking all the help it can get. Strangely, a videographer with Hollywood connections offered to record the passage of some animals from San Antonio to Indiana. Instead of welcoming the help in putting the message out there, the board, according to filmmaker Billy McNamara, agreed during a conference call last week to allow him to videotape a transfer — for a fee.
“They basically said, if you want to do a rescue you have to give us money. Or else you can’t,” McNamara told the QueQue this week. When he offered to pay for the cost of transporting the animals to a rescue in Indiana, the board circled round to McNamara’s Hollywood-based celebrity sponsor. “They said he’s got deep pockets, he should be able to get us some money. … Basically, that’s extortion.”
So much for the animals.
While Straw said they are working with many USDA-approved facilities to transport as many of the animals as possible, she pledged WAO would stay open until “every single animal has been found a new home.”
Groups offering to lend a hand so far, reportedly include Kendalia’s Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, a New Mexico zoo, Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, Chimp Haven, and Montana Grizzly Encounter, among others. Meanwhile, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries is considering pooling a group of large donors to purchase the sanctuary outright so that those animals that are too sick to transport “would not be betrayed again” by we humans. Patty A. Finch, executive director of GFAS, said a quasi-investment deal could offer returns to donors even, if structured right. (Overloaded with well-meaning capital? Contact her at patty@sanctuaryfederation.org.)
Legal wrangling at WAO continued up to the day before the Aug. 31 board vote to dissolve, with a settlement offer presented by the attorney for former owners Ron and Carol Asvestas. The offer suggested they would withdraw a 2009 lawsuit in exchange for being reinstated at their former $100,000 salaries and 11 months of lost wages.
While that opportunity seems to have gone by the wayside, the organization is still accepting donations to feed the animals until they are relocated, Straw said. “As far as donations go, we definitely need donations to keep on feeding the animals. Our goal is to find homes within 60 days. If we need to extend that goal, so be it, until we find homes for every animal. In the meantime, we need food, veterinary care, transport, and gas. ... We’ll continue to fundraise, but ideally we’d like to find a non-profit organization that will receive donations on our behalf and disperse them as needed.” •
No comments:
Post a Comment