Penguin Keeper Quits in Dispute With Vet
Posted on: Friday, 10 June 2005, 15:00 CDT
SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Zoo has lost its renowned penguin keeper after she disagreed with a veterinarian about how to treat her flock for chlamydia.
Jane Tollini, who quit March 12, spent more than 20 years transforming a wayward bunch of Magellanic penguins into the most prolific captive colony in the world. She also received worldwide media attention when the birds embarked on a frenzied 6,200-mile mock migration around their pool in January 2003.
Tollini, 57, also pioneered a Valentine's Day sex tour about animal mating habits that's been copied by zoos throughout North America.
She said she quit after a dispute with head vet Freeland Dunker about how to treat the penguins for chlamydia, a contagious bacterial infection that's not sexually transmitted in birds. Three birds died of the disease and nine others died from related heart failure and renal disease.
"This is the first case of chlamydia I know of for penguins in captivity or in the wild," Dunker told the San Francisco Chronicle, adding that he did extensive research. "We basically have something new here. We could have lost the whole colony."
However, Tollini said the drug's temporary side effects were devastating, including anorexia and eye problems tied to light sensitivity. She favored more discussion, a wait-and-see strategy and the use of Baytril, a gentler medication.
After abruptly quitting, Tollini said she received her retirement check. "If it's not cashed within 60 days, you can be reinstated." She said she cashed it June 3.
"I think it's a huge loss for us," said zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan. "Jane is really the heart of the zoo in many ways."
Tollini said she still remembers her first encounter with the Magellanics. She was volunteering in the zoo hospital in 1984 when 69 wild-born penguins arrived in crates from Chile.
"It was horrible," Tollini said. "They were hissing and spitting and spinning their heads around like snakes. We all stood there and said, 'I ain't touching them.'"
Then Tollini, who herself was abandoned as an infant and later adopted, realized something.
"Nobody wanted them," she said. "And I went, 'Honestly, if nobody else wants them, then I do.' I fell in love."
Although Dunker said the 52 surviving penguins' blood and fecal samples are now free of chlamydia, he and Tollini worry the weakened birds are susceptible to malaria and West Nile virus. Meanwhile, breeding is running a month behind in a colony that has produced 166 chicks in 20 years.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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