Sparrow-Fox War Widens to Include Humans : Environment: A woman seeking to prevent removal of predators from Ballona Wetlands is charged with threatening a protector of the rare birds.
- Share via
Nature’s war between the red foxes of the Ballona Wetlands and their prey, a rare sparrow species, has taken a nasty turn now that humans have gotten involved.
Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn announced Monday that his office has filed a criminal charge against an animal-rights and fox advocate who allegedly threatened an environmentalist allied with the rare Belding’s savannah sparrow.
Charged with one misdemeanor count of making a threatening phone call was Peggy Randall, 56, of North Hills, a former vice president of the Wildlife Protection League.
Randall, it is alleged, made the call July 24 to Ruth Lansford, a leader of the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands.
The Friends group joined Maguire Thomas Partners, a developer proposing to build a huge office and residential complex on 1,100 acres in the area, to support a program of trapping, and at least initially euthanizing, red foxes that have been preying on the sparrows.
“I hope we have not waited too long to remove the foxes,” David Kahane of the National Audubon Society said Monday. Kahane said that not only have the foxes wreaked havoc on Belding’s savannah sparrow, a rare species that some scientists believe has been reduced to one mating pair in the wetlands, but the predators have also cut deeply into the area’s native shrew and mole populations.
Maguire Thomas agreed to set aside 260 acres as a nature preserve to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the Friends. “It’s just going to be a fox preserve if they aren’t stopped soon,” said Nelson Rising, an executive with Maguire Thomas.
But the Wildlife Protection League and other animal-rights groups object to the trapping program, saying it is inhumane, and have held protests outside Maguire Thomas offices.
The threatening call and three others, left by unknown people, were recorded on Lansford’s answering machine, according to the city attorney’s office. Deputy City Atty. Teddy Eden would not say what the remarks were.
Randall, who is to be arraigned Sept. 8, could not be reached for comment. But league President Mary Sheehy said that “all Peggy said was that she was going to kick her butt, or words to that effect.”
Lansford confirmed that that was the tone of the message.
Meanwhile, Rising said he hoped soon to end the dispute by completing an arrangement for donating eight of the foxes to a Cal State Humboldt behavioral research program and two to a Carson City, Nev., zoo.
Rising admits that may still leave half a dozen foxes to be dealt with in the wetlands.
Free-lance writer Kathleen Kelleher contributed to this story.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Tom Girardi was a legal legend—until he was found guilty of stealing millions from his own clients. Host Madison McGhee and pop culture commentator Kiki Monique unpack how his downfall became a Real Housewives scandal, and what Erika Jayne may or may not have known. Plus, L.A. Times reporter Harriet Ryan joins to share how she helped bring Girardi’s crimes to light.
Sammy Roth visits America’s second-largest nuclear plant, Arizona’s Palo Verde Generating Station, and sits down with three experts to explore the pros and cons of atomic energy.
