Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
The first of two parts
On May 25, 1993, the death of a juvenile Barbary ape named Mujica at the Southern Nevada Zoological Park touched off a firestorm of controversy that is still raining down on the 1-acre zoo.
The circumstances surrounding the ape's death united a number of former employees and volunteers into a committed group of critics. They have staged protests, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and they continue to call for zoo director Pat Dingle's resignation.
The long-simmering feud, even Dingle admits, has taken its toll on the organization's finances, scaring away possible donors and stunting the growth of the state's only zoological park.
The critics, however, aren't the only clouds looming over the Rancho Drive facility. Among other difficulties it faces:
The 48-year-old former police detective attacks his critics as a small band of "misfits" and disgruntled employees who have nothing constructive to offer.
They continually attack him, he said, because "they have little or no purpose in their lives and it gives them some identity."
"It's just our unfortunate luck," Dingle said, "these five people found themselves at the zoo and continue to feed off each other at our expense."
At least 12 former employees and volunteers, along with four former zoo veterinarians, wrote letters to the board complaining about Dingle's stewardship following Mujica's death.
While their biggest complaint is what they describe as Dingle's stubborn mishandling of Mujica's fatal reintroduction to her species, the critics also recite a litany of other complaints about the director.
They charge that Dingle has repeatedly ignored recommendations about medical treatment, vetoed many suggested habitat improvements, and verbally abused and intimidated employees and volunteers.
They want to end what they see as a pattern of neglect.
George Stoecklin, who was zoo veterinarian when Mujica died, said the group is still crusading because, despite frequent news coverage, "the truth has never been told."
The truth, however, is interpreted differently by different people.
Suggestions ignored
For the 37-year-old Stoecklin, who owns the North Las Vegas Animal Hospital, the truth centers on the treatment of the animals.
Stoecklin, who was a volunteer vet at the zoo for about a year, tells of repeated instances in which his advice was ignored or rebuffed by Dingle.
"I recommended things that he could have done very cheaply or would have cost him nothing," Stoecklin said, "but he still would not do it."
Three other former zoo vets -- Scott Bradley, James Wilson and Nicholas Saint-Erne -- stated in letters that they quit providing services because the conditions at the zoo made adequate care for the animals impossible.
Bradley, in a 1993 letter written to Stoecklin and forwarded to the zoo board, stated that he shared the Rancho site with the zoo from 1985 to 1989 and provided veterinary services to Dingle for about two years.
"We ceased to provide services for Mr. Dingle," Bradley wrote, "after our advice on animal husbandry and preventative care were repeatedly ignored."
During the wintertime, Stoecklin said, the zoo's large parrots, macaws and other birds get cold and can be seen shivering in the morning.
"Birds have died," he said. "If they're in perfect health, they can survive, but they shouldn't have to be in perfect health to winter here."
The veterinarian said he suggested an inexpensive solution of draping plastic over the aviaries to give them some protection. Even Plant World -- a nursery with a bird collection -- knows enough to take that precaution, he said.
Dingle, however, refused -- and still doesn't see any reason to give the birds extra shelter.
"If anyone can explain to me how a 1-pound bird sitting in the middle of a 2,000-square-foot exhibit can use its body warmth to heat that," Dingle said, "I'd be happy to do it.
"It's absolutely crazy. My expertise is parrots. I have over 20 years experience breeding rare and endangered species of parrots. ... I know what works and what makes them feel right and comfortable."
But Stoecklin said Dingle's response and lack of understanding just illustrates his point.
The plastic, he said, doesn't trap the birds' body heat. Rather, it forms a "little greenhouse" to allow the sun's rays to heat the enclosure and also provides some shelter from the wind.
"If he does not see the benefit of that," Stoecklin said, "I just offer it as an example of why he should not be running any kind of zoo."
Arnie the lion
Dingle, however, counterattacks, questioning Stoecklin's professional judgment regarding a number of zoo animals and charging that the veterinarian almost killed the zoo's lion, Arnie, by changing his medication too abruptly.
That story is reinforced by Julie Swain, former chief of surgery of the University of Nevada School of Medicine and now chief of cardiovascular surgery at the DeBakey Heart Institute in Wisconsin.
Swain diagnosed the lion as having Addison's disease and prompted Stoecklin to prescribe medication. She asserts that when the veterinarian backed off dosage of one of Arnie's prescriptions, it was she who noticed the ill effects and increased the dosage again.
Swain, who supports Dingle, said her efforts were followed by a marked improvement in Arnie's health and that Stoecklin's treatment showed a "basic lack of understanding of the principles" of Addison's disease.
"I did not have a high opinion of his medical knowledge," she said.
But Swain's claims were disputed by Arnie's keeper at the time, Sherry Patterson, who took care of the lion on a day-to-day basis. Patterson said Arnie had been sick for months before she could persuade Dingle to allow her to call in Stoecklin.
The veterinarian's medication greatly improved Arnie's health, she said.
"He was better when he was on George's dose," Patterson said. "He got worse when Julie had me rechange it."
Stoecklin also disputes the facts as told by Swain.
First, he said, Swain is a medical doctor for humans, not a veterinarian, while he has 13 years experience treating animals, plus a five-year stint as a keeper at the St. Louis Zoo.
Second, Stoecklin said, Swain's version never happened.
"She adamantly tried to tell me this was not Addison's disease," he said.
In addition, Stoecklin said, Arnie was still recovering from the sedation needed to put the lion down so they could draw blood the previous day when Swain observed him and became convinced he was on the brink of death. Swain, Stoecklin said, "is not familiar with anesthetic effects on wild animals" and did not understand what she was seeing.
"Suffice it so say," he said, "I was equally unimpressed with her abilities."
Endangered species
Stoecklin not only has questioned the director's qualifications -- Dingle admits he dropped out of high school and has no college education -- but also his veracity.
As an example, Stoecklin points to Dingle's repeated statements that Barbary apes are a rare and endangered species.
In fact, Dingle stated in a recent interview that Barbary apes are critically endangered.
"They are one of the few primates on the endangered species list," he said.
But two U.S. Department of Interior officials said the Barbary ape is neither endangered nor threatened according to the federal Endangered Species Act.
Dingle also has claimed that his zoo is providing a valuable service because it has the only breeding program in the country for the species.
That probably is true, said Lisa Stevens, curator of primates for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., but only because there is no longer any interest in breeding Barbary apes -- which she said are now called Barbary macacaques in scientific circles.
In fact, Stevens said, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's species survival task force has recommended that the Barbaries be phased out of zoo populations.
"They're not considered severely endangered," Stevens said. "There are other species that are more threatened and in need of breeding."
Stevens also disputed any claim of difficulties in breeding the species.
"There's nothing special about breeding them," she said. "They're easy to breed."
Dingle supporters
Still, Dingle does have his supporters -- among them Carmi Penny, curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo.
Penny has backed Dingle's handling of Mujica -- although critics point out he is only going by Dingle's description of events.
Penny repeated his support in a recent interview.
"Frankly it's our opinion," Penny said, "that there was nothing obviously wrong.
"This is a people issue, not an animal issue."
Another supporter is Amy Farr, who was the zoo's part-time zoologist until last March when her husband was transferred to Ohio.
"I think Pat's doing a good job," said Farr, who has a master's degree in zoology with a specialty in animal behavior. "I'm confident the animals are receiving the utmost in care. None of them are being neglected."
The current zoo veterinarian, Brian Fisher, also voices support for the zoo.
"They're steadily improving," he said. "Like any small zoo, they're trying to find the money to get things that you'd like them to have."
USDA investigation
Just how successful they'll be in finding that money could hinge on the impending USDA hearing.
A motion for a hearing was filed Feb. 13 by the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspecting Service. The hearing will likely be scheduled in March or April.
The complaint contains 16 charges ranging from the circumstances surrounding Mujica's death to the care of a llama's hooves. Each of the counts carries a possible fine of $2,500, although officials said it is unlikely the agency would ask for the maximum of $40,000 if all the charges were found to be valid.
Dingle has officially denied all the charges and asked for reimbursement of court costs and attorney fees.
Most of the charges, he said, are a result of complaints filed by his detractors. The USDA, he said, has to automatically investigate such complaints.
But Dr. V. Wensley Koch, supervising animal care specialist for APHIS, requested the investigation because of "concerns about the veterinary care that is provided."
Koch said she wasn't questioning the ability of individual vets, but whether they are given "the authority to run a good program."
The concern is, she said, that "either the veterinarian isn't notified of problems or when he is notified he (Dingle) doesn't follow the recommendations of the vet."
The hearing, Koch said, isn't like a trial. Both sides will present their evidence in front of an administrative law judge, then APHIS will draw up a set of recommended actions to be ruled on by the judge.
While Koch was cautious about discussing any possible outcome, she did say some of the charges are serious.
"A zoo that is guilty of some of this stuff," she said, "is a poorly run zoo."
Dingle confident
Dingle expresses confidence that the zoo will weather that and other tests with flying colors.
Many of the complaints are minor technical matters that have already been cleared up, he said, and the facts will support the zoo in the more serious matters dealing with Mujica.
As for other problems, Dingle said he's "embarrassed" to be losing the parking lot, but the zoo hasn't had enough money to pay its rent, so his corporation hasn't been able to pay the mortgage.
Recent improvements have helped increase attendance, he said, to a new high of 53,173 visitors in 1995. And without the overhead of the parking lot payments, Dingle said, the zoo will be in a stronger financial position to pay off its debt to the city and, perhaps, expand.
"The bottom line," he said, "is I'm very comfortable with who we are, what we are and where we're going."
Veterinarian Stoecklin, who serves on the boards of the Wild Wing Project and the Tortoise Group, said he wants to see a "real zoo" in Las Vegas.
"From my point of view, that's never going to happen with Mr. Dingle in charge," he said.
While the campaign against Dingle has turned into "a long, drawn-out thing," Stoecklin said, it's because the whole story has never been told.
"I made a commitment to Mujica and the people involved," he said, "that at some point in time I would see the real truth of it come out."
MONDAY: Inside the Mujica case.
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