Killing of Infected Venice Ducks Begins : Wildlife: Despite a crowd of protesters, at least 37 birds are rounded up and slain. The effort is designed to prevent a deadly infectious virus from spreading.

Ignoring the angry taunts of a passionate crowd, state and federal wildlife officials clad in protective clothing captured and killed at least 37 of the infected Venice ducks Thursday morning--the first stage of a weeklong effort to contain an outbreak of a fatal avian virus.

The unlucky fowl, nearly 10% of the number slated to die, were rounded up during a tedious operation that began soon after 6 a.m., as police and wildlife biologists assembled on Venice Beach and headed for Washington Pond in neighboring Marina del Rey.

In near silence, nine wildlife agents on foot and in dinghies stalked the ducks around the circumference of the fenced pond, herding them into a baited trap. The production was punctuated mainly by soft quacks and the whoosh of nearby traffic--until the protests began.

Wearing black armbands, banging pot lids and blowing whistles, about 75 demonstrators tried to scare the ducks into flight and away from their fate--death by injection because of the outbreak of the duck virus enteritis, which officials fear could spread to the wild waterfowl that migrate along the Pacific Flyway.

The demonstrators loudly questioned the manhood--and womanhood--of the wildlife biologists and trappers, claimed government conspiracy, brought up the ghosts of the Vietnam War and the Holocaust and--occasionally--spoke of their willingness to face arrest.

“I think what we’re about to witness here stinks,” Venice resident Glen Lynch said as the crowd milled and wildlife officials prepared to gather up the ducks. “I think it’s very inhumane.”

“You guys must feel so good about this!” shouted a tearful Chris Miller of Los Angeles. “This is how you prove yourselves as men. . . . You’re not concerned about the animals.”

The government officials planning the so-called depopulation operation were expecting such protest and had prepared carefully. The problem facing the Department of Fish and Game was as difficult as it was unusual:

How does a largely rural agency--one that had been publicly rebuffed by local bird lovers in the same spot just weeks before--carry out a mass animal extermination in the middle of a highly traveled tourist area on a warm, bright beach day?

As the protesters gathered before sunrise in the Venice Canals, where they expected the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin, wildlife officials slipped down Washington Boulevard to the nearby pond.

“We have to evaluate the logistics for safety,” said Gordon Cribbs, the state wildlife service’s regional patrol chief for Southern California. “This is a flood control area, no trespassing, fenced. It’s easier. Why go in the middle of a hornet’s nest? We are going to have to do that, but we want to wait for their (canal residents’) cooperation.”

The saga of the Venice ducks began in late April when residents began noticing duck carcasses in the picturesque canals. They called in a veterinarian, who alerted state wildlife officials.

Tissue samples were shipped to the federal Wildlife Health Research Center in Wisconsin. A preliminary report from the laboratory May 17 confirmed an outbreak of a fatal herpes virus that causes internal bleeding, bloody nasal discharge and dehydration. So far, officials say, an estimated 58 ducks have died of the virus; the rest of the population has been exposed.

Officials swooped into the canals six days later to try to capture and kill the ducks, only to be met by an angry crowd of chanting Venice residents and guests, who blocked pickup trucks with their bodies to keep the ducks safe.

That same day they transported about 70 ducks and geese to an animal sanctuary in Kern County and got a temporary restraining order in Santa Monica Superior Court, prohibiting the slaughter of the estimated 350 waterfowl. But on Wednesday a judge overturned the order, saying that he did not have the authority to stop state agents from carrying out their duties. The protesters are planning to appeal the decision.

At the heart of the emotional battle played out in these colorful beach areas is the question of what to do with the ducks. State and federal authorities say that they all should be killed and the canals should be decontaminated to protect wildfowl.

There is no good vaccine, no treatment, no cure; quarantine is expensive, the authorities say. The Audubon Society and Duckwatch, a local group that has long cared for the canal ducks, agree.

But the duck lovers who sent the animals to the refuge in Inyo-Kern and have raised $15,000 to build another sanctuary in the Venice Canals say the fowl should be tested, vaccinated and quarantined for life. They contend that a research program in concert with the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis could use the birds to supply information to stop outbreaks.

On Thursday, the official view prevailed.

“If (the virus) gets into the wild waterfowl population, we’ll have to pick up carcasses each year,” said veterinarian Pam Swift, who was in charge of giving the birds injections of sodium phenobarbital at an undisclosed location. “We have to be very aggressive and very conservative. Most people don’t understand that.”

Particularly in Venice, home to the ducks for half a century. As the ducks were carted off in wire cages, the jeering crowd got uglier. “Killers, killers, killers,” they chanted.

“You people should all be killed!” shouted one protester, only to be chastened by another. “No, don’t sink to their level,” an intense surfer-shirted spectator instructed. “They’ll get theirs when the asteroids come.”