Officials Seize Ducks at Reservoir

State game wardens seized about 60 ducks from Franklin Reservoir in the Santa Monica Mountains on Thursday after officials noticed a suspicious increase in the lake’s duck population and feared that diseased animals might have been smuggled there from Venice.

“The number of birds at the lake suddenly blossomed and those birds don’t fly around,” said Patrick Moore, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game. “Because of the sudden boost, we suspected that somebody may have transported them there.”

Moore said he did not know whether game officials had destroyed the captured ducks or were simply monitoring them for signs of illness. But he added, “Once diseased birds are there, you have to assume all the birds are infected.”

The move came one day after armed wardens raided the home of Linda Shusett, a pro-duck activist who opposed the state’s efforts to kill the approximately 350 ducks that once inhabited canals in Venice. Officials seized campaign materials, phone numbers and videotapes of news reports describing the controversy--but no ducks.

The plan to kill the ducks has sparked a monthlong battle, with wildlife officials saying that the diseased ducks could infect millions of other birds and some Venice residents arguing that there is no proof the birds pose any threat to wildfowl using the Pacific flyway.

Catherine Carson, a neighborhood activist and leader of Duckwatch, said she was saddened to hear of the latest roundup. Her group had supported the killing of the Venice ducks, she said, but only because they wanted to protect ducks elsewhere from infection.

Meanwhile, officials were grappling with another outbreak of the deadly avian virus at a pond in Chula Vista, south of San Diego, where 32 Muscovy ducks have been reported dead in the last week. Wardens are expected to capture the remaining 80 ducks today and destroy them.

Since the Venice controversy, a Los Angeles County quarantine has prohibited transporting of ducks.