Making a Stink : Activists Assail Zoo’s Campaign Against Skunks

It stinks, say animal activists.

Non-scents, say animal keepers.

Those are reactions to a crackdown on skunks swarming at the Los Angeles Zoo that led to 118 of them being killed during a four-week period this summer.

Zoo operators say the white-striped creatures were trapped and shot to stop the spread of disease to zoo animals--not to mention discomfort to zoo visitors.

But leaders of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, sniffing a new controversy at the beleaguered zoo, charge that the skunk hunt was more foul than any odor from the Mustelidae .

“They need to fix their fences and maintain their enclosures” and let the skunks be, said PETA investigator Zoe Rappoport of Washington. “This is a huge amount of animal abuse.”

Zoo officials disagree. They contend that fences are no match for small skunks that prowl for nighttime snacks and leave droppings in food that can kill zoo animals.

“The population of quote ‘wild’ skunks was breeding in here,” said zoo biologist Mike Wallace. “We had so many that you had to dodge them in the evening as you walked around.”

By July the problem deteriorated to the point that zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo was forced to find a detour across the compound’s grounds when stubborn skunks took up positions on a pathway and “stood him off,” according to Wallace.

“I’m worried about animals succumbing to diseases that skunks transmit. Over the past two years we’ve lost about a dozen to a worm specific to skunk defecation,” Wallace said, explaining that the dead animals contracted baylisascris after eating food contaminated by skunk droppings.

Los Angeles County animal control officers assisted with the project, placing 29 baited cage traps out of public view. Snared skunks were “humanely” finished off with .22-caliber short-round bullets, according to zoo officials.

PETA leaders said an anonymous informant sent them a copy of minutes of a meeting where trapping was discussed.

Activists contend that the incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents at the city-owned zoo. Others have included the accidental death of an African bull elephant, disease that devastated the penguin population and controversies over living conditions of chimpanzees and other animals.

Earlier this year--one day after former zoo Director Mark Goldstein resigned amid internal squabbling and criticism over animal care and outdated exhibits--it was revealed that coyotes had broken in and killed several flamingos and an Andean condor.

There have been other intruders, as well.

Before this summer’s skunk shoot, there was last year’s wasp roundup. At the height of the roundup, traps snared as many as 5,000 stingers a week.

That belated news had PETA leaders buzzing Tuesday.

“Wasps are animals too,” Rappoport said.