Refuge Facing Probe Over Animal Waste Disposal

The Wildlife Waystation, barred from giving public tours or accepting new animals, may face a criminal investigation over alleged violations of environmental codes, a state official said Sunday.

Animal waste flowing from the compound, home to nearly 1,200 animals, could be seeping into nearby creeks and a recreation lake and pose a risk to human health, said Mervin Hee, a regional enforcement director for the Department of Fish and Game. The order to cease giving tours and accepting additional wildlife came Friday after two rounds of inspections at the facility in Angeles National Forest.

Hee said Fish and Game officials have given a videotape depicting violations to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office environmental crimes unit.

“There are serious health and safety concerns up there,” Hee said. “They need to reduce the impact of waste going into Little Tujunga Creek.”

A major concern, Hee said, is that waste could seep into the recreation area at Hansen Dam or affect other downstream water users.

Hee said a videotape made during a March 28 inspection shows employees hosing down cages to remove feces, rather than legally collecting and disposing of it off-site. He also said he has enlisted the help of the state Regional Water Quality Control District and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in investigating the refuge.

Martine Colette, who founded the exotic wildlife sanctuary more than 25 years ago, denied that animal waste produced there posed any public health risk.

“That’s nothing but bunk,” Colette said, adding that even a temporary closure could cripple the facility.

Hee said he plans to meet today with Colette to determine ways the 160-acre sanctuary can reduce permanently its population of tigers, monkeys and other animals.

The Department of Fish and Game, which at times has sent animals to the Waystation for refuge, inspected the facility two weeks ago but did not measure how much animal waste goes into streams, or how much might be contaminating Hansen Dam, officials said.

“We don’t know how much waste is being released,” Hee said. “Determining the public health risk is not my area of expertise, but you’ve got 1,100 animals releasing waste.”

The cease-and-desist order could force the facility to close for good if it is not lifted soon, Colette said. Wildlife Waystation’s $2.5-million annual budget comes from private donations and tour fees, she said. She was barred from showing any animals over the weekend at America’s Family Pet Expo in Pomona, and has canceled all tours scheduled for this week, including a scheduled field trip for 400 elementary school students.

“We depend on ongoing, month-to-month fund-raising,” she said. “Without it, we cannot operate.”

The state did not immediately levy fines, nor did it set a deadline for compliance. Colette, who compared her operation to a large horse ranch, said she would not remove animals from her facility unless they are healthy enough to leave.

“I’m not going to start removing animals right immediately,” Colette said. “We don’t have the wherewithal, nor is it in the interest of the animals’ health. They are going to have to come up with a reason why I should remove animals if I am within the law and a reasonable length of time for me to do what they are asking.”

Besides the waste removal issue, Fish and Game officials said a number of cages in the Waystation violate state codes. Those pens are too small, too crowded or built to the wrong specifications, they said. Colette said that until Friday, she thought the state approved of her updating cages as money came in.

The citations are not the first regulatory trouble for Colette.

She was cited by the Arizona Game and Fish Department in March for harboring a Bengal tiger without proper permits. In 1998, the Fish and Game Preservation Fund ordered the Waystation to pay a $2,000 fine for building an access road on a protected stream. The road led to a planned primate center that, because of a surveying error, was built partially on national forest land.

Colette said she bought the property from the Angeles National Forest and still plans to build the center.