Zoo Seeks Permit to Bring Panda to U.S. for Surgery

Blocked from importing two pandas for breeding and display purposes, the San Diego Zoo is seeking federal permission to bring the female panda to San Diego for surgery and then return her to China.

But the same federal agency that turned down the previous application from the zoo is skeptical that Shun Shun is in such dire need of medical attention that it justifies bringing her to San Diego.

Kenneth Stansell, an official with the permit office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said officials with the Chinese central government in Beijing have not indicated that Shun Shun is suffering a life-threatening condition.

But San Diego Zoo scientists who have seen the giant panda at the Chengdu Zoo said they are worried about a tumorous mass on her back and her abnormal behavior. Their opinion is apparently shared by provincial zoo officials in Chengdu, if not by officials in Beijing.

“She didn’t look well; she was staying in one spot,” said Nancy Czekala, an endocrinologist with the San Diego Zoo’s Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species who saw Shun Shun last month. “She’s not moving away from places where she defecates. She’s acting aggressively to other pandas.”

Privately, zoo officials complain that the federal government’s position on importing animals has shifted 180 degrees under the Clinton Administration.

Specialists at the zoo said they are convinced that through the study of the urine of female pandas, they have unlocked the secrets to the panda’s reproduction cycle that have stymied breeding efforts at other zoos.

The zoo struck a deal with Chinese zoo officials to bring Shun Shun and the male Shi Shi to San Diego for three years. In exchange, the zoo would pay $3 million for panda preservation efforts in the Sichuan Province in Central China.

In June, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, after heavy lobbying by the World Wildlife Fund, an animal rights group that opposes the importation of animals for zoos, notified the zoo that the importation request for Shun Shun and Shi Shi was likely to be rejected.

A month ago, the bid was formally rejected on the grounds that it could lead the Chinese to further deplete the panda population by capturing them and shipping them to zoos worldwide. The zoo is appealing that rejection.

In a letter sent Thursday to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the zoo’s executive director, Douglas Myers, said the zoo would be willing to bring Shun Shun to San Diego for surgery and return her to the Chengdu Zoo without putting her on display, despite the fact the zoo’s new $800,000 panda enclosure is empty.

But Stansell, in an interview Friday, said his staff remains unconvinced that Shun Shun could not receive medical attention in China or somewhere closer than San Diego.