ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.

ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

CLICK HERE Most Recent Issues The Eberle Mess Search this Site! Important Materials Cool Links Watchdog Report Subscribe Online (safe) Spanish Edition French Edition Editorial Sampler AP articles Sampler AP Masthead The LEWYT Awards EMAIL US

The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and political activity in the name of animal and habitat protection—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the bowls left empty when some take more than they need.

September 2007

Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette says sanctuary is broke

LOS ANGELES--The Los Angeles Daily News and KNBC-4 television on August 30, 2007 amplified emergency appeals from Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette for funding she said was urgently needed to keep the 31-year-old sanctuary operating.

"We are $1 million in debt, and we have no funds left," Colette told Daily News staff writer Dana Bartholomew. "Things as they are today will not continue for the next week, or two weeks, without help."

Colette suggested that if an immediate infusion of cash was not forthcoming, the 400 Waystation animals would "become the county's problem, the state's problem," a threat she has issued before in years of disputes with regulatory agencies.

Closed for 110 days by the California Department of Fish & Game in 2000, Wildlife Waystation never fully regained the permits it needed to host donors' visits, which until then were the sanctuary's chief revenue engine. More than just generating on-the-spot donations, visits tended to inspire new donors to give regularly, and established donors to give more.

"Trying to obtain a permit is a long process," Colette told KNBC. "There are many regulations we have to meet in order to get a permit, and we cannot meet those regulations at all. In the meantime we have gone broke trying to run the sanctuary without being open to the public."

Colette estimated that Wildlife Waystation operating costs currently run at about $5,000 a day. This is consistent with the most recent Waystation filings of IRS Form 990. ANIMAL PEOPLE has found that determining the balance of Waystation program expense, fundraising costs, and administrative expenditures has been difficult, however, because of idiosyncracies in how the forms have been completed.

"Last month," wrote Bartholomew, "five of the eight Waystation board members quit, apparently burned out over troubles at the beleaguered agency."

Colette at the end of August laid off general manager Alfred J. Durtschi, who was paid $107,153 in the most recently reported fiscal year, and also laid off half of the 48 Waystation caretakers and groundskeepers.

Colette told news media that Southern California Edison had threatened to cut off the sanctuary electricity due to unpaid bills, and that the Waystation was also about to lose propane delivery.

Former Waystation board chair Robert Lorsch resigned on July 1, 2007, after five years of intense involvement.

Lorsch, recounted Los Angeles Weekly "City Beat" columnist Marc B. Haefele in January 2007, "founded a big phone card company called SmarTalk that cratered in the [2001] dot-com meltdown with accusations of insider trading. Bill Gates reportedly claims Lorsch helped make Microsoft Windows 1.0 a huge success. He's a friend of astronauts and wants to sell billboard ads on space shuttles. He donated a pavilion at the Museum of Natural History, and this season has given high-end political fundraisers at his vast Mulholland Drive mansion for politicians including presidential aspirant and right-wing U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Oklahoma."

Haefele reported that Lorsch's father and Colette dated and lived together.

Before Lorsch became involved, Haefele summarized, "Wildlife Waystation was investigated by a special county interagency task force that included planning, fire, and health officials, presided over by the County Counsel's office, looking into allegedly deficient animal care and unsecured animal exhibitions, inadequate fencing, sanitation that put waste in a local stream, plus persistent fire safety problems. Critics of Wildlife Waystation allege that Lorsch's high-level intervention caused the county to dissolve this force. Lorsch didn't acknowledge he had done so, but characterized the force as 'a horror,' and said, 'Every time the Waystation tried to fix something, they were hit with a citation.'"

Haefele recounted federal court testimony by Lorsch about the extent of intercessions with public officials he acknowledged, in his efforts to keep the Waystation open. The hearing was held after the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service charged that Wildlife Waystation had repeatedly violated the federal Animal Welfare Act while on probation due to past violations.

"Deputy U.S. Attorney Colleen A. Carroll said that if her findings were upheld, the Waystaton would lose its federal operating permit and its officials--including Lorsch and founder Martine Colette--might be fined," Haefele wrote. "Lorsch and Colette maintain that if they lose, Wildlife Waystation must close."

"Martine wanted control over everything, and that has been problematic," Lorsch told Bartholomew after resigning. "I can't speak for the others, but it got tiring."

"My job now is to find a solution to this crisis and dilemma," Colette said. "And to save the animals at the Waystation."

Longtime board member Peggy Summers on September 17, 2007 took an optimistic view. "We still have some regulatory issues," Summers acknowledged to ANIMAL PEOPLE. "We have lost board members, but people are coming out of the woodwork to volunteer very important fund development services. Martine has stepped up to the plate and taken over many aspects of things, and is doing a great job. USDA was just here for a full facility inspection," Summers said, "and we passed with flying colors. We are developing other very promising ideas as well. We are going to come out of this somewhat changed....but even better. The animals are depending on us, so the three board members left are giving it our all."

But at least some of the "promising ideas" may not materialize quickly, if at all.

One much discussed possibility was that Wildlife Waystation might partially relocate to Palm Springs. Dean Seymour, who succeeded Lorsch as the Waystation board president, told Stefanie Frith of the Palm Springs Desert Sun in early August 2007 that the Waystation hoped to obtain 80 acres of donated land and $300,000 with which to build a modular office and habitats for chimpanzees, lions, and tigers. Reported possible land donors included two Native American tribes and actress Suzanne Somers, whose attorney confirmed her interest to Frith.

"Most of the [Waystation] animals would relocate to Palm Springs," including most of the chimpanzee colony, Frith wrote, "while the Waystation would keep 20 acres of its 160 acres in Los Angeles County for other animals," according to Seymour's plan.

"Mayor Ron Oden is enthusiastic about the Waystation, and introduced the idea during the July 25 city council meeting," Frith added.

However, while Seymour hoped to be ready to move the animals by the end of the year, Oden indicated that the permitting process alone might take up to a year.

Special master speaks

"The county has appealed to the public for donations to help support the place," former court-appointed Waystation special master Gini Barrett told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "A new benefactor may step in, although it is difficult to imagine who that might be. The public may cough up enough money to keep the place open a few more months."

But Barrett was not optimistic.

Barrett, then western regional office director for the American Humane Associ-ation, was in September 2000 named special master to supervise efforts to bring Wildlife Waystation into compliance with California Department of Fish and Game regulations.

"I spent three years negotiating the settlement of the Fish and Game case and initially was very supportive of the Waystation and Martine," Barrett said. "Yes, they had many, many, many environmental, health and safety code violations and problems. But the animals were in pretty good shape, even if they were living in old-fashioned cages, rather than more modern habitats. The only real horror show was a big chimp facility, meant to be a temporary place when the chimps arrived quickly," following the 1995 closure of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery In Primates at New York University.

"The Waystation had tried to build a new and modern facility," Barrett recounted. Unfortunately they sited it on someone else's adjacent land," specifically part of the Angeles National Forest, within which the Waystation is an inholder, "and did not have the required inspections or permits. They got shut down and went no further.

"When I got involved there had been no progress on this project for several years. Martine seemed to have lost interest when she could not do what she wanted to do. No further efforts to relocate those chimps had been made--either onsite or at other facilities," Barrett alleged. "I focused a lot of attention on trying to get new cages built for those animals. This eventually got done, but it was a really difficult struggle, and I have to admit, county employees worked overtime to block progress on this much needed improvement.

"I have been in politics a long, long time," Barrett said, "but I learned a lot in the process of trying to get some decent housing for these chimps about the use and abuse of power by government agencies. I was disappointed, disillusioned and often disgusted by the tactics of a number of county employees. I understand getting frustrated with a facility operator. I don't understand channeling that frustration into tactics that harm the animals more than they harm the operator.

"In addition to everything else, the County and the Waystation were at a major legal juncture," Barrett explained. "The Waystation's long standing conditional use permit had expired. Technically, the county could have closed the place."

The Los Angeles County administration "was rightly horrified," Barrett conceded, "by the aging, junky, illegal mess the Waystation had evolved into. In addition, all the government agencies that had struggled with Martine over the years were now comparing notes and sharing information. As each agency learned more about the problems other agencies were having, that affected each agency's willingness to work collaboratively with, or believe or trust, Martine.

"Additionally there was a simultaneous campaign of complaints to each of these agencies, especially the county, by a collection of former volunteers and others, even a former board member.

Getting things fixed

"I saw my role as getting things fixed," Barrett said. "Unfortunately, there were some real logistic and physical realities that Martine could not easily solve and would not deal with realistically. The Waystation acreage is extremely hilly and rolling and the cost to bring a piece of land like this up to current codes on road improvement, hillside stabilization, water supplies and storage for fire protection, sewage disposal, etc. is just way too prohibitive for a nonprofit animal facility. While I was involved, the estimates for infrastructure improvement, not including any cage or habitat improvements, were in the $30 million range, and would likely be higher now.

"From an animal care and welfare point of view," Barrett observed, "this facility is old, founded in the 1970s and still stuck in the type of caging that was common then. We have learned a lot about animal behavior and needs since then. Zoos across the country are being forced to sink lots of money into better and more modern caging and habitats to improve the well-being of their animal residents. Sanctuaries, while having more limited funding, should also be providing better facilities. To my knowledge, the Waystation never considered these issues seriously. Martine's emphasis." Barrett charged, "seemed to be focused on building more small cages so more animals could be saved.

"The only practical thing to do would have been to sell this land," Barrett opined, "and work out a move to a flatter location, where all the legal requirements would be at least economically feasible, and--hopefully--build all new, larger, more humane animal habitats.

Colette told Bartholomew of the Daily News that she has been offered between $2.5 million and $3 million for 120 acres of the Waystation.

"I had the impression," Barrett continued, "that the longer term board members and Martine felt that Lorsch would somehow come up with the millions to put in all the roads and infrastructure. I don't know if Lorsch initially thought that it might be possible to raise that kind of money or not. Certainly as he gained insight into the facility, the obstacles, and this type of nonprofit fundraising, I am sure he came to realize what an immense hurdle this would be."

As of 2000, the Waystation housed nearly 1,200 animals. Under pressure to reduce the population, Colette removed horses and cattle from the premises.

"She also lost her native wildlife rescue and rehab permits, so all of those animals and related traffic were eliminated," Barrett said.

"While other wildlife rehab organizations grew, none are as centrally located or as well known as the Waystation, so injured native animals have lost an important resource.

"Age and attrition have further reduced the population. No large rescue operations have brought animals to the Waystation in recent years," Barrett said. "The place has been better managed in the last few years than in decades.

"I have a lot of respect for what Martine has accomplished," Barrett said, "but I also have come to understand that many of the Waystation's problems are of her own making. She does exactly what she wants to do, whether or not it meets regulations--and often regardless of whether it benefits the animals. I have never come to understand her reasoning, but I have come to understand how she has developed such a long list of people who are angry with her.

"I hate to see the place fail," Barrett concluded. "Los Angeles can support this needed work. There was no good reason for this place to fail. It has taken concerted and consistent effort."

Colette did not respond to ANIMAL PEOPLE's request for comment.
--Merritt Clifton

Court awards no fees to Primarily Primates receiver

AUSTIN--Travis County Probate Court Judge Guy Herman on September 10, 2007 denied the request of Lee Theisen-Watt for "Payment of Receiver Fees and Reimbursement of Attorneys' Fees" for the time she spent as court-appointed receiver at the Primarily Primates sanctuary near San Antonio, Texas, from October 15, 2006 until May 1, 2007.

Herman noted that Theisen-Watt testified "she had agreed to offer her services pro bono, that her original attorney would represent her pro bono, that she assumed her original attorney would pay for the fees of her other attorneys, and that she gave a charitable receipt from Primarily Primates to the original attorney for the $42,000 the original attorney said he paid" to another law firm.

Theisen-Watt's tenure as receiver ended after the Texas Office of Attorney General agreed in an out-of-court settlement to "fully and completely release, acquit, and forever discharge Primarily Primates," founder Wally Swett, other staff and board members, and Friends of Animals, which absorbed the sanctuary in August 2006, from "all claims" brought against them.

The Texas Office of Attorney General had seized Primarily Primates based largely on allegations by two former employees who had been dismissed for cause, forwarded by PETA counsel for research and investigations Leona Stormont. Stormont sent the allegations shortly after Ohio State University retired nine former research chimpanzees to Primarily Primates, with an endowment for their care and housing, against PETA objections.

Wrote Judge Herman, Theisen-Watt "admitted that subsequent to the settlement hearing, she decided to charge for her services and that of her lawyer because she was unhappy with the terms of the settlement." While Theisen-Watt "suggested that her approval of a settlement was a condition prior to her providing her services pro bono," Herman continued, "such a condition, if it existed, was unknown to the parties and was not agreed upon by any of the parties or the Court.

"The condition precedent theory of fees offered up" by Theisen-Watt "in this case is an attempt to interfere with the judicial process," Judge Herman found, "and violates the Receiver's supposed third-party neutrality. The Court cannot and will not countenance such effort by awarding fees and expenses."

Among Theisen-Watt's actions as receiver was relocating many of the animals who lived at Primarily Primates.

At the time the July/August 2007 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral and Primarily Primates executive director Stephen Tello believed that Theisen-Watt had sent some Primarily Primates animals to the Duke University Lemur Center, as well as to several sanctuaries, and were quoted commenting about the suitability of Duke as a home for sanctuary animals. Feral later notified ANIMAL PEOPLE that Duke did not receive any Primarily Primates animals, although Duke had received an inquiry about possibly taking some.

Chimps Inc., of Eugene, Oregon, the International Primate Protection League, and New Mexico land owner Marguerite Gordon on June 25, 2007 sued Primarily Primates, respectively seeking to keep two chimps, 12 gibbons, and a longhorn steer whom Theisen-Watt sent to them.

Friends of Animals on August 6, 2007 sued Chimp Haven, of Shreveport, Louisiana, seeking return of the seven surviving former Ohio State University chimps. Two of the chimps died of pre-existing heart conditions soon after arrival at Primarily Primates.