Wildlife Waystation Receives $100,000 From Foundation

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.

Martine Colette said last week’s gift from the Lund Foundation will pay for completion of a new, larger primate house. The home for chimps has been in the works since 1996.

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 will make personal appeals to get the donation reinstated.

Colette said she will meet today with a team of attorneys to prepare an appeal to the state Fish and Game Commission.

She said the state Department of Fish and Game’s ban on the refuge to accept new animals has already forced her to turn away injured wildlife.

“There are a lot of people who have great empathy and great charity for injured animals they might find” but now have nowhere to take them, Colette said.