Zoo Phones Ring Following TV Report on Sale of Surplus Animals for Hunting

The San Diego Zoo was flooded with telephone calls Monday after it was featured in a television news report that suggested that animals from some zoos end up on private hunting farms, a zoo spokesman said.

Jeff Jouett, the spokesman, said a “60 Minutes” segment that aired Sunday prompted about 75 people to call the zoo Monday. The segment, which focused on what the nation’s zoos do with their surplus animals, said that animals from the San Diego Zoo are often entrusted to an animal trader named Earl Tatum. Tatum, the segment alleged, has used middlemen to sell exotic animals at wildlife auctions, where private hunting farms buy their stock.

Jouett, who spent the day talking to people who called a special line installed to handle the heavy telephone traffic, said the news show gave many people a mistaken impression.

“The biggest misinformation is that people call and think the San Diego Zoo is selling animals at wildlife auctions,” he said. “We don’t participate in wildlife auctions. We certainly don’t participate or condone hunting ranches, and we don’t work with anybody who does.”

Jouett confirmed that the zoo has a longstanding relationship with Tatum, but he defended Tatum’s reputation. In October, Jouett said, when a “60 Minutes” reporter showed zoo officials a videotape of Tatum attending an animal auction, the zoo immediately stopped doing business with him.

Soon afterward, Doug Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society, flew to Arkansas to confront Tatum, Jouett said.

“He assured us again that no San Diego animals that he has handled have gone to an auction or a hunting ranch,” Jouett said.

The zoo then resumed its business with Tatum, Jouett said. Mostly, Jouett said, the zoo hires Tatum to transport animals from San Diego to other zoos, often giving him surplus animals as payment for his services.

“We trade animals to him in return for his transport services,” Jouett said. “He really is the best person at transporting animals, and we move over 1,100 animals a year.”

Jouett also said that, at the request of the San Diego Zoo, the American Assn. of Zoological Parks and Aquariums has appointed a task force to investigate the practices used by all animal suppliers and transporters.

“If they turn up any evidence that Earl Tatum or anyone else is working through a middleman at a game auction or a hunting park, then we have done our last bit of business with that person,” Jouett said.