Chief of State Senate’s Wildlife Panel to Confer on Beating of Dunda

The chairman of the state Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee is scheduled to meet with officials at the San Diego Wild Animal Park today as he begins an investigation of the beating of Dunda the elephant and the park’s management policies.

Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) was not satisfied with the response about the incident that he received Thursday in a letter from the Zoological Society of San Diego, according to Mary K. Shallenberger, the committee’s chief staff member. The Zoological Society operates both the Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo.

“He was hoping for a more detailed response--what it is that Zoological Society did to get to the bottom of this,” Shallenberger said. “There seemed to be a bit of obfuscation in the society’s response.”

McCorquodale last week sent a letter to Betty Jo Williams, president of the Zoological Society, informing her that his committee is preparing to investigate the treatment and handling of Dunda and to examine the qualifications, training and supervision of employees at the zoo and Wild Animal Park.

McCorquodale asked Williams to send him the statements of zoo and park keepers involved in the Dunda incident and the findings of the zoo’s internal investigation, as well as those done by the U.S. and San Diego humane societies.

Keepers have alleged that Dunda was chained by all four legs, pulled to the ground and beaten on the head with ax handles for several days after she was transferred to the Wild Animal Park from the zoo last February. Park and Zoological Society officials have denied that any abuse occurred but have given varying accounts of the incident.

In her response to McCorquodale, Williams said the Zoological Society would cooperate with the Senate committee and would “be in contact” after the San Diego Humane Society finishes its investigation.

“It doesn’t say very much,” Shallenberger said of Williams’ letter.

McCorquodale will meet with Williams and Douglas Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society, after touring the California condor breeding facilities at the park, Shallenberger said.

Although the park gets none of its regular operating funds from the state, it received an appropriation of $250,000 from the Legislature earlier this year to expand the condor program. The bill awarding the park those funds was heard by the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee.