Cruelty to animals and maintaining wild or exotic animals
New Orleans, LA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 6, 2003
County: Orleans
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Edwin Stoutz
The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Executive Director Laura Maloney said she's puzzled and disappointed that a magistrate commissioner returned a collection of exotic animals -- including an endangered crocodile and a monkey that could be infected with a harmful virus -- to a New Orleans man without consulting the animal-care agency.
Magistrate Anthony J. Russo issued an order Friday to return the animals without seeking input from the SPCA. And if anyone had, "I would have objected," said Maloney, who added that the magistrate took the action with the blessings of Assistant City Attorney Gerald "Jerry" Archer.
The dispute stems from a Feb. 6 incident in which police and the SPCA confiscated dozens of caged exotic creatures, including baby monkeys and a baby crocodile, from Edwin Stoutz's home at 2 Versailles Blvd.
Police issued Stoutz a summons to appear in Municipal Court on charges of cruelty to animals and maintaining wild or exotic animals. The animals were sent to the Audubon Zoo.
In the motion Friday, Russo ordered that the animals be immediately removed from the city and returned to their legal owner within 24 hours. In a court document, the owner was listed as Cheryl Morgan of Beeville, Texas.
If given the opportunity, Maloney said she would have encouraged the assistant city attorney and judge not to release the animals for a variety of reasons.
First of all, the infant pig-tail macaque, a primate from Asia -- which authorities found in a cage with two baby capuchins at the Stoutz home -- could have herpes B, a virus potentially fatal to humans that can be spread in macaque bite wounds, Maloney said.
"We don't know, because it has to be older before we can test for it," she said. "But the virus is found in more than 80 percent of adult macaques."
Secondly, several of the animals were receiving improper care, she said. Several of the cages were dirty. The Old World primates were kept in a cage with New World primates, which could enable diseases to be passed on for which one of the primates has no protection, she said. The space and surroundings for the three kinkajous, small mammals from the rain forests of Central and South America, were inadequate, she said, adding the nocturnal creatures, which like places to hide, were cramped in one sling inside a cage.
And one of the animals is endangered, so authorities should have been given time to investigate where the animal came from and how Stoutz got it, Maloney said.
Kevin Bowler, reptile curator at the Audubon Zoo, said the crocodile is either an American or a Siamese crocodile. Both are endangered species, Bowler said.
"I don't know if the individual had the permit necessary to legally possess it," Bowler said.
Stephen Clark, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Tuesday that he plans to verify the endangered status of the crocodile with federal experts. If it is an endangered species, the matter will be investigated, he said.
In addition to the capuchins, also known as organ-grinder monkeys, the kinkajous and the macaque, Stoutz also was returned other animals: 26 sugar gliders, squirrel-like animals native to Australia, and a baby caiman, a South American reptile similar to an alligator.
City Attorney Charles Rice said Archer told him that there would be no municipal violation if the animals were moved out of New Orleans and that the animals were returned to their rightful owner.
Asked why Archer didn't consult with the SPCA, Rice said: "Why would there be a need to consult with the SPCA?" Rice said Archer told him Stoutz will not be prosecuted for any offense in connection with the latest seizure of animals.
Maloney said Tuesday that she has written Rice a letter asking him to have the city attorney's office consult her in the future before taking similar action in such cases.
This was the second time exotic animals have been found at Stoutz's home. This past summer the SPCA discovered Stoutz was harboring two lemurs, a mongoose, two black-eared marmosets, four common marmosets, two kinkajous and six cotton-top tamarins. He said they were gifts. No charges were filed after the incident, and Stoutz was allowed to send the animals to what was described as "a good home" in Texas. References |
