5 Animal Deaths Renew Criticism of Care at Zoo

Kuehn and Larson also criticized the zoo's animal care practices.

"Every vet has really embarrassing screw-ups; I've had mine," said Kuehn, who worked at the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos before retiring in 1997. But the deaths, he said, suggest that the National Zoo sometimes has "deficiencies of basic clinical judgment and caring."

Edward C. Ramsay, a veterinarian at the Knoxville Zoo who teaches at the University of Tennessee's veterinary school, expressed concern about the care of the lion, lemur and orangutan. He stressed, however, that he believes the problems were aberrations and that the National Zoo treats hundreds of other animals "competently and with care about their welfare."

The Lion

Kisangali came to the zoo in August 2003 from an animal sanctuary in California. Three months later, the lion began looking and acting ill. Blood work indicated that she had an infection.

Sanchez, according to medical records, did an ultrasound exam on several organs but did not look at the uterus. In his case notes of Jan. 29, 2004, with the lion showing no sign of kidney or other trouble, Sanchez wondered why the illness persisted. "Psychological factors cannot be ruled out," he wrote.

Kisangali's condition worsened in February. During surgery Feb. 23, veterinarians discovered the pus-filled abdomen. They spayed the animal and tried to clean out the infection. The lion died that night.

Ramsay said the zoo "certainly paid attention to this animal." Still, he said, "when somebody says pyometra is Vet Medicine 101, I think they're right." The zoo's veterinarians, he said, "set their minds to a different direction and never came back."

The zoo's veterinarians, in their written response, said pyometra should have been "high on the list" of possible conditions. They said they focused on kidney and digestive problems because older cats are prone to kidney disease and because Kisangali had a history of gastrointestinal troubles.

The Emu

The 8-year-old bird was sold to the zoo in late November 2003 by Ed and Rhonda Keeling, who breed emus in Upper Marlboro. A private veterinarian had recently examined it and taken a blood sample. The Keelings said they were stunned when the emu died while zoo veterinarians tried to draw blood during a routine exam about two weeks later.

The emu had been kept in the zoo's quarantine area, where animals are examined before joining the collection. When she delivered the bird, Rhonda Keeling said, the staff told her that they didn't know much about emus and asked her to demonstrate how to handle it.

"They are very docile animals, as long as you treat them gently and don't move too quickly," she said.

At the Dec. 9 exam, Sanchez put a hood over the emu's head to make it easier to restrain. Keeling said the bird had never been hooded and probably panicked. Sanchez and a keeper struggled to hold the bird down, according to medical records, while another veterinarian tried twice to draw blood. The emu stopped breathing, and attempts to revive it failed.