Baltimore Zoo losing many animals to budget crisis

By Susan Levine
The Associated Press

	DUDLEY M. BROOKS / THE WASHINGTON POST Visitors view elephants Anna and Dolly at the Baltimore Zoo. The elephants will be moved because of a budget crisis.
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The Egyptian flapshell tortoises get to stay put, but the lesser flamingos have to go. The Panamanian golden frogs will keep their same address. The pachyderms, however, are being sent packing.

A budget crisis triggered by state funding cuts, miserable weather and economic doldrums has pushed the Baltimore Zoo to the brink, with officials concluding that the only way to balance the books is by eliminating jobs and programs and moving out 400 animals — including the much-loved elephants, Dolly and Anna.

In a city that prides itself on having the country's third-oldest zoo — a facility that is internationally regarded for its species-conservation programs — last week's anguished announcement caught people off guard. Just weeks ago, the zoo opened a $7 million arctic exhibit called Polar Bear Watch, with a tundra buggy that visitors ride for prime viewing of featured attractions Magnet and Alaska.

"That is the irony," said Elizabeth Grieb, the zoo's president. "We have funding for capital projects, but it's restricted to new construction. We can build them, but we can't operate them."

Without the latest moves, the zoo risked running out of money in its $12 million budget for 2004 and closing its doors by March.

Overnight, the zoo's travails became a rallying cry for schoolchildren and animal lovers. By Thursday, they had pledged $25,000 in support. By Friday, the amount had climbed to $35,000. Radio shows are urging donations. Classes are organizing fund-raisers and letter campaigns.

"It is our responsibility as Baltimoreans to do what we can to keep the zoo open," wrote a seventh-grader at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Day School, where students engaged in an extended discussion of what action they could take.

"They were very passionate about it," teacher Leila Bowersox said. There were pointed questions about where tax dollars go. "The kids brought up how much money is spent on stadiums."

Dolly and Anna are at the center of the attention. Both were born in Africa but have grown up here and now are in their late 20s, still of breeding age. The zoo, as part of a nationwide program for species protection and preservation, cannot let such an opportunity pass.

The significant cost of baby-making and baby-keeping, far more than the day-to-day expense of feeding and housing, made Grieb and her top administrators decide to try lending the elephants to another zoo. How significant? As much as $100,000 per animal for artificial insemination, plus the price of reconstructing and upgrading living quarters to accommodate offspring. Nearly $1 million over several years, officials estimated.

Unfortunately, Dolly and Anna are just one aspect of the aging facility's money problems. The zoo gets a quarter of its $12 million budget from the state, but that's down $700,000 from fiscal 2002. In addition, like many cultural institutions, it has suffered a decline in corporate and foundation giving.

Given its location north of downtown — beyond the usual tourist's trek through the Inner Harbor — the zoo has long struggled to draw more visitors, but this year, attendance dropped 9 percent as winter's heavy snowfall gave way to the constant rain of spring and early summer. Then came Hurricane Isabel.

Grieb has already canceled the zoo's 2004 summer camp and cut about a dozen staff positions.

She has tried the positive, too, from expanded evening and weekend hours to costume festivities for children and happy-hour events.

But such measures weren't enough. With cash reserves depleted and no chance of a bailout by the state or the city — which funded the zoo entirely until the mid-1980s — Grieb announced that 20 more positions were being axed and the animal collection would be winnowed by several hundred reptiles, amphibians and birds, for a savings of $1.2 million.

Ticket prices, among the most expensive in the country at $11 for adults, may go up by next summer.

"We've been going through the ... stages of grieving here," Grieb said. "Everyone believes so much in this place."

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company