Animal Refuge Says Survival at Stake

The Wildlife Waystation, long beset by legal action over hundreds of health, safety and other violations, will be in court again Thursday, but this time as the party lodging the complaint about regulatory agencies.

Its attorneys say the wildlife sanctuary in the Angeles National Forest has cleaned up its act and now its very survival is threatened by a jungle of contradiction from local, state and federal agencies over a single issue: whether 24 chimpanzees can legally be moved from an unsafe, decaying cage to three sturdy new ones a few hundred feet away.

The problem -- one of overlapping jurisdictions -- is so complex that officials aren’t sure a court order will solve it. Even if Newhall Superior Court Judge Floyd Baxter sides with the Waystation, the Los Angeles County counsel’s office believes his ruling would have no effect on the Regional Planning Department’s refusal to grant permits for the cages.

“I would be shocked to find any law that indicated that that kind of an order was binding on the building official in the county, and it’s the building official who has the jurisdiction and the responsibility to decide whether or not to grant somebody a building permit,” Senior County Counsel Roberta Fesler said.

But Waystation attorneys Byron Countryman and Marilyn Barrett argue in court documents that the facility is ensnared in a “Catch-22” and needs a court order to end the impasse and keep the animal refuge open.

Officials on all sides say without county permits, the refuge cannot regain operating licenses that were suspended by the state Fish and Game Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Without licenses, the Waystation is barred from raising funds needed to continue operating, said Bob Lorsch, a Los Angeles philanthropist leading an effort to get the 160-acre facility back on its feet.

“The Wildlife Waystation has spent over $1 million to come into compliance,” he said. “If this stalemate continues, there is a serious likelihood the Waystation will have to close, and many of its 600 animal residents might have to be euthanized because there’s no place else for them to go.”

The county refuses to grant building permits for the cages because the Waystation does not have a conditional-use permit allowing its land on Little Tujunga Canyon Road to be used for an exotic animal sanctuary. For two years, the Waystation and the county have been at odds over delays in processing the application for a conditional-use permit.

In a March 27 letter addressing the impasse, the Department of Agriculture told Lorsch that it will not consider reinstating the facility’s license until the chimps are in their new home. State Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano said his agency had not been notified about the court hearing. “We would say, if the caging meets all specifications -- county, state and USDA -- then move the chimps,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Waystation appears to have picked up an important ally. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley recently inspected the grounds with the Fish and Game Department and said he supports reopening the facility, which is being allowed to continue caring for its existing populations but is closed to the public and cannot accept new animals until its licenses and county permits are in order.

“I see no reason to close it down,” Cooley said after viewing improvements to cages, fencing, sanitation and medical care that were done in response to about 300 violations cited by state and federal authorities over the last three years. As the county’s chief law enforcement officer, Cooley would decide whether to shutter the now-illegal Waystation if the impasse continues.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Paul Bernardi said he or a representative of his office will go to court Thursday to support the Waystation’s request for a judicial order requiring the chimps to be moved into their new home. But he agreed that the judge cannot order the county to issue permits.

He said there is a difference of opinion over whether cages fall under building codes. The county has been firm in maintaining that they do.

The 27-year-old Wildlife Waystation in Tujunga is considered the largest and longest-standing facility of its type in the nation.