Too Much Monkey Business

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — For the first time in its 20-year history, the Wildlife Waystation is being forced to turn its back on animals in need, administrators said Thursday, in part because work on a half-million-dollar shelter was begun in the wrong place.

The fates of 47 chimpanzees and more than 150 other primates used in medical research are in jeopardy because the Waystation, which had agreed to accept the animals from several laboratories, is unable to provide for their care, said Martine Colette, founder and director of the Waystation, a refuge for abused, abandoned and sick animals.

If the Waystation--which provides “retirement” care for exotic animals--can’t house them, they may be killed, said experts in research animals. Some of them carry infectious diseases--including AIDS--that they were infected with as part of research projects, the experts said.

Problems stemming from construction of an ambitious 7-acre primate center have left the Waystation without the resources to provide the special care needed by the animals, Colette said.

Colette said that because of a faulty survey commissioned by the Waystation, the primate center’s foundation was laid partially outside its borders, on U.S. Forest Service land. Although the Forest Service has been cooperating with the Waystation in an attempt to resolve the problem, construction has been suspended. The delay has raised the original price tag of between $500,000 and $600,000 by nearly 50%, she said--money the Waystation does not have.

Since the 160-acre sanctuary was established five miles northeast of Lake View Terrace in 1977, the Waystation has survived floods, fires, drought and a financial squabble among board members without ever turning an exotic animal away, Colette said.

“This is a tragedy. We are devastated,” Colette said. “I was just stunned for about a week. For the first time in my life there is nothing I can do.”

With the Waystation unable to accept the animals, they will probably be sold to another research facility that does not believe in “retirement,” said Dr. David Mahoney, the director of a Texas laboratory that offered many of this latest group of primates to the Waystation.

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Mahoney, who said that some of the 47 chimpanzees he is offering to the Waystation are infected with HIV, declined to name his lab for fear that a controversy surrounding the transfer might jeopardize the animals’ futures.

“I don’t want to spoil these animals’ chances or have them fall into the wrong hands,” Mahoney said. “They’ve done their bit for mankind, and I would like to see them retired.”

Dr. David Lee-Parritz of the New England Regional Primate Research Center, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, said the use of primates in medical laboratories has increased in the last 10 years with the expansion of AIDS research around the world.

“There are certain diseases with humans that can only be solved by working with monkeys,” said Lee-Parritz. “No other animal will do.”

Because there are few organizations like the Waystation that have the staffing, facilities and expertise to care for laboratory animals, Lee-Parritz said, they are generally kept by the research labs for the remainder of their lives, sold to other labs or killed.

“There is a reluctance to euthanize chimps especially because they are an endangered species,” he said, “but most don’t make it to shelters because it’s just not a practical solution.”

“There are just too many primates for the number of sanctuaries out there,” said Madeline Bernstein, executive director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles. “The type of care that is required and the liability coverage for keeping these animals is very expensive.”

Funded solely by private donations, the Waystation has grown from a small, volunteer-run shelter into an internationally known refuge for exotic animals in little more than two decades. The “ranch,” as it is called by employees, currently provides permanent homes for more than 1,000 animals, including lions, tigers, bears and chimpanzees.

The Waystation’s annual $2.5-million budget also pays for medical treatment and temporary shelter for thousands of other animals every year.

In October 1995, the Waystation accepted its first animals retired from medical research, eight chimpanzees from New York University. Early the next year, eight more chimps arrived from NYU along with five baboons. Other primates followed, and in August of last year the Waystation began construction on its massive monkey-retirement home in a remote area of the ranch.

The compound is being built specifically for “retired” chimps, Colette said, and includes a 7,000-square-foot enclosed building as well as several open “play yards.” Depending upon how the animals are grouped, the primate center will be able to accommodate from 75 to 100 chimps, Colette said.

Construction of the primate center, which was funded by two private donors and was originally scheduled to open this spring, was halted when it was discovered earlier this year that the large compound occupies about 2 acres of Forest Service land.

“So far it has set us about six months behind and cost us quite a bit of money. We had to stop some of the grading halfway, and then the rains came and washed it out. We’ll have to do it again,” said Colette.

Steven Bear, an administrator with the Tujunga Ranger District, said local Forest Service officials have recommended resolving the problem through a federal program called the Small Tracts Act, which was designed to help settle disputes caused by “inadvertent encroachment.”

The Forest Service will probably either sell the land to the Waystation at a fair market price or engage in a land swap with the organization, Bear said.

“It could be resolved in as short as a few months, or it could be a few months more than that,” said Bear, indicating that the recommendation still must be approved by the local forest supervisor and the regional forester in San Francisco.

On Saturday, the Waystation will hold its third annual “wildlife fund-raiser” at the Bel-Air home of Mayor Richard Riordan. Celebrities such as Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton and actresses Laura Dern and Betty White will be on hand to help the organization try to raise the estimated $300,000 to $400,000 it says is needed to construct temporary facilities for the primates.

Meanwhile, Colette said the window of opportunity for the animals, which include tamarins and marmosets in addition to the chimps, is quickly closing.

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Earlier this week, surrounded by lush plants, reptile tanks and with her Australian shepherd, Apache, lying at her feet, Colette spoke in her ranch office about her disappointment at not being able provide refuge for the primates.

“Nine-hundred-thousand dollars”--the total cost of the primate center--”is a phenomenal figure for me,” she said. “But I know that there are companies out there that could take care of this problem with the stroke of a pen.”

An 11-month-old male chimp named Mystery, whom Colette refers to as “my son,” bounded into the office and Colette took his hand.

“Could you really look at that beautiful animal and say, ‘I condemn you to live for 55 years in a cage, with no sunlight, no birds, no natural noises’? For me, the point isn’t, ‘Should we use these animals in medical research?’ ” Colette said.

“The fact is they have been used, and now they have a chance to be free. They deserve to live the rest of their lives as monkeys.”