Zoo Board to Join City Investigation of Violations : Animals: The 37-member panel expresses shock at reports of substandard conditions at L.A. facility.

The Greater Los Angeles Area Zoo Assn. board--which includes a number of Hollywood celebrities--said Thursday it was “very disturbed” by reports of substandard conditions at the Los Angeles Zoo and will join in a city investigation of chronic violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

“It came like a shock to all of us,” said actress Betty White, a board member. “This came as just a shattering experience.”

White said she questions the competence of zoo Director Warren Thomas, but will wait to hear his explanation before judging the matter.

“There’s got to be an awfully good other side to not have me up in arms,” she added.

A statement issued by the 37-member board said they had not been informed about repeated citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as a warning letter from the agriculture department that the zoo’s license could be revoked if the violations were repeated.

At a press conference, Thomas defended his management of the zoo and his staff’s competence and dedication to good animal care. He also said many of the violations have been corrected and the rest will be addressed. “There’s no excuse,” he said.

The Times reported on Thursday that the Griffith Park facility had been cited repeatedly by USDA inspectors for more than three years for inadequate food storage, sanitation and drainage problems, pest and rodent contamination, inadequate housing, run-down animal barns and other violations of federal regulations. Thomas also never replied to a letter sent to him by the USDA nearly a year ago demanding an immediate response.

City officials reacted swiftly Thursday. Mayor Tom Bradley, who is traveling in Europe, said in a letter issued by his staff that he is “deeply concerned” about the violations found by the USDA and is “disappointed” that Thomas had failed to notify the appropriate officials of the problems.

The letter, sent to Jim Hadaway, general manager of the Department of Recreation and Parks, demanded an immediate report on the matter. The zoo is owned by the city and operated by the Recreation and Parks Department in conjunction with the 135,000-member zoo association.

A spokesman for City Councilman Joel Wachs said that the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, which Wachs chairs, will hold a hearing on the problems at the zoo.

At a press conference Thursday, Thomas repeated his statement that he was unaware of the USDA complaints until recent weeks and had begun a crash program to address the problems. He said lower-level employees had failed to inform him of the federal inspection reports.

However, Thomas signed a lengthy USDA inspection report more than a year ago describing the violations, records show.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Thomas acknowledged that he signed the report, but said that he did not read it. Instead, because of its length, he passed it on to a staff member for analysis but never heard about it again, he said.

Thomas was fired from the job of zoo director in 1986, but was reinstated the following year by a federal judge who ruled that the firing had been improper.

In firing Thomas, city officials cited problems with various purchases and sales. They also alleged that Thomas used racial epithets around zoo employees and took zoo supplies for his own use. They argued that he was fired for good cause, but the judge ruled that his civil rights had been violated.

Thomas R. Tellefsen, a real estate developer and chairman of the association board, said the association intends to help the city investigate the current problems and will take up the matter at an executive session next week.

“This situation took us by surprise,” Tellefsen said. “We had no knowledge about the USDA citations . . . and therefore we were pretty upset when we learned about it.”

The association is a nonprofit corporation that helps operate and raise funds for the zoo. Its volunteer board is made up of business people and celebrities including White, actresses Stephanie Powers and Carmen Zapata, and Gloria Stewart.