Judge Lifts Order; Venice Ducks to Die

After a crowded and raucous hearing punctuated by applause and pleas for humanitarianism, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that he has no authority to stop state and federal wildlife officials from killing the celebrated Venice ducks, some of which are infected with a fatal virus.

As soon as the ruling was announced, Craig Manson, counsel for the state Department of Fish and Game, said the agency “will move expeditiously to carry out the plan” to kill an estimated 325 ducks in the Venice canals, Washington Pond a few blocks away, the Ballona Wetlands and Marina del Rey.

Patrick Moore, a Fish and Game spokesman, said later that “within the next 48 hours, we intend to make a sizable dent in the number of birds in the area.”

Shocked supporters of the ducks--women and men who blocked the canals with their bodies 17 days ago to keep government agents at bay until they could win a short court reprieve--were tearful and unprepared for the verdict.

“What are we supposed to be--happy?” snapped Bill Dyer, an organizer in the movement to save the birds. “Of course we’re angry.”

“I want to go home and cry,” said Stacey Straton, wiping tears from her eyes in the courthouse hallway, which was packed with television cameras, government officials and spectators. “We didn’t expect this.”

The group has formed a nonprofit organization called the Venice Canal Duck Foundation. Some members said they would not rule out another act of civil disobedience.

They also said they expect the Department of Fish and Game to act quickly. “They’ll kill the ducks in 10 minutes,” Dyer said. “They’ll be there at 6 a.m.”

At an 8 p.m. Wednesday meeting on the canals, a tearful Yolande Michaels, one of the organizers, said that residents planned to cooperate with state officials “to protect the ecosystem in the entire area.”

Although Michaels said that “as a community we have no plan” to interrupt the duck kill, others said they would be out at 6 a.m. today awaiting wildlife officials

Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer, who threatened to clear the courtroom when duck supporters disrupted the proceedings by breaking into cheers, told the group its members should appeal to Gov. Pete Wilson, not to the courts.

“I have no power to order Fish and Game to fund, build and operate a quarantine” if the ducks were to be given a reprieve, Shimer said. “Why haven’t you talked to the governor? You’re talking about something that has significant public interest and concern.”

The fate of 61 ducks and nine geese that the animal lovers had transported to a refuge in Kern County on the day of the blockade was not clear Wednesday. Shimer said he was not ruling on them, just on whether wildlife officials should be stopped from killing the ducks in Los Angeles County.

Because of an outbreak of duck virus enteritis--which some fear could infect the 2.8 million birds traversing the Pacific Flyway--state and federal wildlife officials were poised on May 24 to capture and kill by lethal injection the ducks and geese in the Venice canals.

The disease had come to their attention in late April, when ducks in the picturesque canals began dying. Residents took carcasses to a local veterinarian, who notified the state Department of Fish and Game.

Two carcasses were shipped to Madison, Wis., for testing at the federal Wildlife Health Research Center, which confirmed that the birds had died of the so-called duck plague.

But as state and federal wildlife officials prepared to capture the ducks and put them to death, Venice residents and other duck lovers organized a protest. An early-rising crowd of about 100, chanting “Save the Ducks!” and brandishing banners and coffee cups, used their bodies to prevent government officials from entering the canals.

Several hours later, after officials had left the area, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order, keeping the ducks alive until Wednesday’s hearing.

The day of the protest, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services quarantined the birds to prevent Venice residents from spiriting them away. But it was too late; 70 already had been taken to a Kern County refuge run by the LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit group that specializes in animal protection and environmental issues.

The group wanted to have the ducks tested there, vaccinated and quarantined. A research program in conjunction with the UC School of Veterinary Medicine at Davis was proposed that would use the fowl to investigate the disease in hopes of helping to control future outbreaks.

“Unless we do research, this will happen again and again,” Yolanda Copeland, attorney for the duck supporters, said at the hearing.

Some ducks with the virus have such symptoms as internal bleeding, bloody nasal discharge and dehydration before they die, state wildlife veterinarian Pam Swift said at a news conference before the hearing. But the only way to confirm the virus’s presence is through a complicated tissue sampling procedure done after death.

“There is really no treatment,” Swift said.

Larry Sitton, wildlife biologist for the state, said ducks could be reintroduced to the canals. But he said a lengthy cleansing process must take place first.

First, the current population of ducks and geese must be caught and killed. Then the city of Los Angeles will apply an anti-virus chemical to the canal water, Sitton said, and wash down nearby sidewalks. Several days later, the canal water will be flushed into Santa Monica Bay.

After the canals are dry for 30 days, Sitton said, wildlife officials will sit down with Venice residents “to talk about repopulating--if they want.”