State Experts Say They Did Not Urge Killing of Polliwog Park Animals

California Department of Fish and Game biologists recommended that 83 ducks and geese at Manhattan Beach’s Polliwog Park be quarantined but did not suggest that they be killed, an agency official said this week.

The waterfowl were killed Sept. 7, according to Los Angeles County Animal Control officers, after Manhattan Beach officials, preparing to make improvements to a pond in the park, sought advice from state biologists on what to do with the wildlife there.

Concerns Voiced Over Killing

Since then several residents and some City Council members have voiced concerns over the killing.

Michael Giusti, an associate biologist for the Department of Fish and Game in Long Beach, said he advised Manhattan Beach officials that the birds might carry several diseases, including botulism, and advised that they not be moved to another open pond.

“We said that transferring them might create the potential for disease transmission,” Giusti said. “We told them, ‘Hold them at the site if possible or give them to individuals,’ ” Giusti said he had not visited the park.

City staff, after hearing of the possibility of disease, ordered the birds killed. It is uncertain whether any birds actually were diagnosed as carriers. Lt. Marvin Stitts of County Animal Control said, however, “To my knowledge, they were not diseased.”

Walton Wright, a naturalist for the city of Torrance, said he has heard of no recent outbreaks of diseases among such bird populations in the area.

Pat Kelly, director of the Manhattan Beach Department of Public Works, which is in charge of the project, refused to take calls on the issue.

Manhattan Beach started the $426,000 project about three weeks ago to improve the pond’s water quality. Workers drained the pond to install a new liner and retaining wall and will construct a redesigned bypass channel to divert polluted runoff.

Los Angeles County Animal Control officers from Carson removed the birds and put them to sleep by injection.

Officials later discovered that several ducks had escaped capture. Four were taken last week to the city yard at 3621 Bell Ave. They are being held in a fenced-off area that includes sand and a small wading pool.

Before the waterfowl were killed, the city tried to find homes for them through an Adopt-a-Duck program. Many had been pets before they had been abandoned at the park. Only one person agreed to accept one of the birds.

Giusti said Fish and Game officials had no objections to the adoption program because, in most cases, the ducks and geese would have been placed in areas where they would be isolated from other large bird populations and could not transmit disease.

More ducks and geese will be placed in the park when construction is complete on the pond, expected to be by the end of the year, said Ralph Luciani, Manhattan Beach director of administration and community services. He did not know how many would be replaced, he said.

Many residents were irate last week when they heard that the birds had been killed. Mayor Pat Collins said she has received about half a dozen calls. The Department of Public Works has received more than 20 calls, Luciani said.

Wright said that, if the birds were healthy, “I think if one did enough telephoning around you could find a pond to put them in.”

“Every place that there has been any discussion of getting rid of animals, there’s always been a public outcry,” he said. “You have to look at the options you have, but you can’t ignore the public sensitivity to it.”

Mayor Collins said the City Council did not know of the situation until after the fact.

“I don’t think there’s any action we can take at all,” she said. “The deed has already been done. It was an unfortunate incident.”