Waystation Urges Chief Accuser to Resign

Issuing their first detailed rebuttal to allegations of pollution and animal housing violations, officials of the Wildlife Waystation near Tujunga said Friday that the state had no grounds for closing the sanctuary and called on their chief accuser to resign.

Byron Countryman, a Waystation lawyer and board member, said he has asked for a court-appointed mediator to help negotiate with the California Department of Fish and Game. The agency closed the 120-acre compound in the Angeles National Forest to the public on April 7.

In a meeting Friday morning, Countryman and other Waystation officials presented a 35-page report to representatives from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, whose environmental crimes unit is also investigating the allegations.

The report, drafted by an environmental consultant hired by the Waystation, contradicted Fish and Game’s assertion that waste from animals at the sanctuary may pollute streams in Little Tujunga Wash.

“There is no observable evidence of human, fish or bird illness associated with this stream bed,” the report said.

The report also offered completion dates for correcting some violating items, such as a wall that illegally changes a stream’s direction.

“There have been no charges filed, and I don’t expect any to be filed,” Countryman said.

Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, had no comment on whether charges would be filed. She said the environmental unit is working with Waystation officials to “address a wide range of problems once and for all.”

“We want to work with the Wildlife Waystation to fix the problems,” Pipkin said. “The discussions we’re having are serious discussions to make sure that happens.”

At a news conference after the meeting, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) said he is “disgusted and outraged by the excesses and abuses of power I have seen out of Fish and Game in this matter.”

The order to close the facility, he said, was based on the report of a state-hired consultant who “got her facts wrong and has been unwilling to justify her statements.”

“I am also here to call for the resignation of Mervin Hee, the regional control officer whose abuses of power have caused this,” McClintock said in comments echoed by Waystation officials.

Hee and other Fish and Game officials declined to comment on calls for his resignation. “Because we still have an ongoing criminal investigation pending . . . it would be inappropriate to address the allegations made today,” said department spokesman Steve Martarano. “We stand by the charges detailed in our letter to the Waystation on April 14 and the manner this investigation was conducted.”

The agency is working with the district attorney’s office to address the problems, Martarano said.

Countryman and Waystation founder Martine Colette said Fish and Game should be held accountable for the nearly 600 animals they said have been turned away because of the agency’s order to stop accepting new animals.

“I think if Mervin Hee is responsible for this mess, it is reasonable for someone to call for his resignation,” Colette said.

In response to state charges that the animal refuge pollutes stream beds at the Little Tujunga Canyon site, the Waystation volunteers cleaned debris from the dry waterways. Countryman said the agency betrayed the spirit of a verbal agreement that would give the Waystation time to fix cages that violated state standards. Since the fray began a month ago, the Waystation has received more than $100,000 in donations to help fix the problems.

The board has spent at least $50,000 to hire a public relations firm, attorneys and an environmental consultant to counter the state’s claims, according to Bob Wenners, Waystation business manager.

The Waystation has been at odds with Fish and Game for more than a decade over cage standards and other issues. It has operated without the necessary permits since 1997, when the department refused to renew them, citing cage standard infractions.

Other agencies probing the sanctuary along with Fish and Game are the state attorney general’s office, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Regional Water Quality Control Board and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Countryman said Fish and Game’s willingness to allow the violations to continue indicate that the department was also willing to cooperate with the Waystation while it raised the money needed to fix the cages.