Legislator Checks Reports of Zoo Retaliation in Dunda Case

State Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) has sent a letter to the San Diego Zoo requesting an explanation for a staff reorganization affecting the keepers who complained about the beating of Dunda the elephant.

McCorquodale, head of the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, took the action in response to complaints received by his office that zoo officials may be retaliating against staffers who spoke out about the incident at a Senate hearing, said Mary Shallenberger, an aide to McCorquodale. Shallenberger refused to say who had made the complaints.

One of those apparently affected by the reorganization is Steve Friedlund, senior animal trainer at the zoo’s elephant barn, who said Thursday that he has been harassed and demoted because he publicly criticized zoo officials for their handling of the Dunda incident.

“It’s a real obvious ploy, and it’s recrimination for what I’ve done and said, for the Dunda episode,” Friedlund said.

Complained About Beating

Friedlund was one of several elephant keepers at the zoo who complained to zoo management and later to the press about the beating of Dunda, an 18-year-old elephant transferred from the zoo to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in February. Keepers at the park chained Dunda by all four legs, pulled her to the ground, then beat her on the head with ax handles during several sessions over two days.

Officials of the Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates both the park and the zoo, have staunchly defended the actions of the Wild Animal Park keepers.

As of Sept. 1, Friedlund said, he has been put under the authority of a zoo staffer with the title of “lead keeper,” a position that, according to Friedlund, should be equal to his own. He said he has been told that the zoo plans to eliminate his title of “senior animal trainer” and that he will not be given the equivalent title of lead keeper.

“They just suddenly said I have no authority,” Friedlund said. “It’s a demotion for no reason. I didn’t think they would be so brazen about it.”

Zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said Thursday that some departments at the zoo have been reorganized, but that Friedlund has not been demoted. “The responsibilities of Steve Friedlund are exactly the same as they’ve always been,” Jouett said. “His pay and job title are exactly the same.” Lead keepers have more wide-ranging responsibilities than senior animal trainers, Jouett added.

The possibility of a title change has been mentioned to Friedlund “in passing,” but “no paper work has been initiated,” Jouett said.

Friedlund said Thursday that he has filed a grievance with his union, Teamsters Local No. 481, over that matter as well as an earlier incident in which he and keeper Lisa Landres were disciplined for expressing an opinion on the “Comments” section of their daily keeper log. Landres also had publicly complained about the beating of Dunda.

Objected to Plan

In the log matter, Landres and Friedlund wrote on a daily report last June that they objected to a plan by the zoo to leave two elephants unattended overnight in the yard outside the elephant barn instead of chaining them inside with the rest of the herd, Friedlund said. Zoo officials wanted to leave the animals outside so that they would be on display during the later summer visiting hours, but did not want to pay keepers to stay later and chain them up at closing time, Friedlund said.

Friedlund and Landres wrote that they thought the plan would be disruptive to the herd’s routine and dangerous to the elephants left outside, since they might fall into the moat surrounding the area. Zoo officials eventually changed their minds and dropped the plan.

Even so, officials pressed the disciplinary action against Landres and Friedlund “for using the daily keeper log to vent personal opinions and editorial-style comments,” Jouett said. “The function of a keeper log is as a health report, not as a ‘Dear Diary’. . . . They were personal opinions and not reflective of anything to do with the health of the elephants.”

Landres and Friedlund were given “a verbal warning and that was followed up with a memo,” Jouett said. “It is not a formal reprimand. It is not in their personnel files.”

Staff opinions are “respected and welcomed,” Jouett said, but only when they are made properly. Landres and Friedlund should have made their comments “person-to-person or in a phone conversation,” he said.

Douglas Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society, is out of town and has not yet seen McCorquodale’s letter, Jouett said.

In the letter, McCorquodale pointed out that Myers had assured him in June that no employee would be discouraged from testifying at a Senate hearing into the Dunda incident held last July. “Having received your assurance . . . I am confident that no employee need fear any form of retribution for speaking out about Dunda,” the letter said.

McCorquodale asked that Myers explain why the reorganization is taking place and what effect it will have on the keepers who spoke out about the Dunda incident.

Meanwhile Thursday, a “working group” of citizens selected by McCorquodale met for the first time to begin drawing up proposals for legislation to define abuse in the care of elephants and other exotic animals.

At the meeting, held in San Jose, group members decided to split into two informal groups to draft legislation, Shallenberger said. Zoo officials and employees will develop one draft and animal rights activists led by Cleveland Amory will develop another, she said. They plan to meet again later this year in an attempt to reach a consensus, she said.