D.A.’s Office to Investigate Animal Refuge

The district attorney’s office said Monday it will investigate alleged environmental violations at the Wildlife Waystation, as federal and state agencies continue to probe alleged crowded and unsanitary conditions at the animal refuge above Tujunga.

John Paul Bernardi, chief of the environmental crimes unit for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, met for two hours with officials from the state Department of Fish and Game to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the sanctuary.

No decision was made, but Bernardi said his office would conduct its own investigation. His is the fourth agency in recent months to investigate conditions at the 160-acre refuge in the Angeles National Forest.

State officials closed the facility to the public Friday and ordered director Martine Colette to stop accepting new animals. The state gave Bernardi a videotape allegedly showing employees washing animal waste into a nearby stream.

A recent inspection by the Department of Fish and Game also found that some Waystation pens were too crowded with animals, primarily chimpanzees and bears.

“The bottom line is the concern for the health of the animals and the people who live there,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture representative confirmed Monday that the agency also is investigating the Waystation after a recent inspection found that the chimpanzee houses were not built to federal animal-safety standards.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board, which inspected the facility last week, is considering an order that would require Colette to clean up the areas where waste from cages has run into creeks.

Colette said she will appeal to the state for exceptions to animal-pen regulations so she can resume accepting new animals at the refuge.

“We are asking the board for exceptions for specialized cages so we can continue,” she said. “You cannot fix what you don’t have the money to fix.”

Colette contended Monday that the state’s orders were making sanitation problems worse. Inspectors reported that Waystation employees were washing animal waste into nearby creeks with water hoses when they cleaned cages.

Colette said that regulators Monday barred her from using water hoses or dumping any water onto the ground.

“We have pens up here that need to be emptied and cleaned,” she said. “The animals need to be cleaned. They’re telling us we can’t do it.”

In 1988, the county Health Department cited the Waystation for unclean conditions in an employee encampment where about 70 employees lived.

The mobile homes had no sewage-disposal system, and waste flowed directly to the ground from pipes connected to toilets, according to citations.

In 1999, USDA animal care inspectors found 30 rats in a kitchen used to prepare meals for the animals and discovered animal injuries, including the fatal fall of a sedated chimpanzee, which had not been properly documented by Waystation staff members.