Shelter Receives Donations

A charitable foundation established by Walt Disney’s late daughter has donated $100,000 to help the embattled Wildlife Waystation, the animal sanctuary’s director said Sunday.

Waystation Director Martine Colette said last week’s gift from the Lund Foundation will pay for completion of a larger primate house. The new home for chimps has been in the works since 1996, and one of the concerns behind recent state allegations about conditions at the shelter was a hay barn that had been converted into a crowded temporary home for them.

Established by Sharon Disney Lund, who died in 1993, the Lund Foundation has supported medical, children’s and animal-rescue charities. Calls to the home of her son, Bradford Lund, were not returned Sunday.

A separate gift bestowed last week will help the sanctuary pay for public relations help as it faces accusations that it violated health codes and animal-safety regulations, Colette said. She declined to disclose the donor’s name or the amount given, but a source with knowledge of the facility’s operations said it was between $25,000 and $50,000.

“It will go to funding a crisis management team,” Colette said. “I don’t know who [will be hired] or some of the particulars right now.”

She also said a donor told her last week that an annual $25,000 gift would be discontinued. Colette said only that the contributor is a local company, and that she would make personal appeals to get the donation reinstated.

Colette said she will meet today with a team of attorneys to prepare an appeal of allegations from the state Department of Fish and Game that the facility violated health codes and animal-safety regulations.

She said the ban by the state on new animals at the facility has already forced her to turn away injured wildlife.