Wildlife Agents Raid Home of Duck Extermination Opponent : Investigation: Venice protester denies hiding birds or smuggling them to San Diego. There may be more seizures.

The fight over the state’s extermination of ducks in Venice surfaced again Wednesday as wildlife officials raided the home of an opponent of the killing, seizing campaign literature and neighbors’ telephone numbers--but no ducks.

Linda Shusett said four or five game wardens with guns drawn kicked open the gate outside her Sherman Canal bungalow Wednesday and searched the house for two hours. A copy of the search warrant said wardens were to search for ducks, carriers for moving them and other materials related to the duck controversy.

A spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game said wardens had searched Shusett’s home as part of an investigation into whether residents had moved or hidden Venice ducks in violation of a quarantine. The birds are believed to carry a deadly avian virus.

Shusett, who insisted that she had never hidden or smuggled any ducks, said wardens seized campaign materials and phone numbers, videotapes of news reports on the battle, a tape from her answering machine and old photographs of canal ducks.

“It was a really scary thing,” she said outside her home, which is next to a canal. “I was stunned. I was totally stunned.” As she spoke, 10 surviving ducks rested nearby.

Shusett’s friends who also oppose the duck kill said they cannot understand why she was singled out. The warrant did not name Shusett, but listed her address and described the house.

Activists said Shusett, a film producer and one of about a dozen key organizers of residents opposed to killing the ducks, might have come to the attention of authorities because she held a big community meeting the weekend before the final roundup of birds. Shusett worried that remarks she made on television last month were presented out of context and appeared to urge people to hide ducks.

The raid shattered an uneasy calm that has prevailed in the canal neighborhood since wildlife workers captured and killed nearly all the ducks there June 16. After losing the duck war, activists have turned their attention to the future of the canals, which are being renovated, and the possible reintroduction of ducks. The group Tuesday named itself the Venice Canals Conservancy.

“Everyone was willing to move forward,” Shusett said. “Now they’re upset and angry. This has set us back.”

Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Moore said there may be more searches.

The raid on Shusett’s home came a day after agency officials reported a new outbreak of the duck virus enteritis in San Diego County. Officials said the San Diego County outbreak was probably caused by diseased ducks smuggled out of Venice by activists--a charge activists denied.

Last week, the state wildlife agency wrapped up its controversial effort to kill the population of about 350 Venice-area ducks, which the county Department of Health said were not to be moved because they might infect millions of migrating wildfowl.

The plan to kill the canal ducks sparked a noisy, monthlong battle with residents who argued that there was no proof the birds endangered the wildfowl who travel the Pacific flyway.

Meanwhile, Fish and Game workers prepared to round up and kill ducks living in a pond in the 1,500-home Eastlake subdivision in Chula Vista, south of San Diego. Though no protest is expected, department officials said they do not plan to announce exactly when they will round up the remaining birds. The pond had been home to 100 to 125 Muscovy, Pekin and hybrid mallard ducks. Thirty-two Muscovy ducks died of the duck virus in the past week, officials said.

A spokeswoman for the Venice duck group doubted that members of her organization would make the drive to protest the Chula Vista kill, but said the group would redouble efforts to change state wildlife policy that emphasizes killing the diseased birds and not saving them.

Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this story from San Diego.