ORLANDO, Fla. -- The company that built an entertainment empire around Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bambi and other loveable creatures faces charges involving the abuse and killing of wild birds, it was reported Sunday.
Investigators said workers at Walt Disney World's Discovery Island fired a rifle at hawks, beat vultures to death with a stick and destroyed the nests and eggs of egrets and ibises. They said the supervisor at the 11-acre zoological park sanctioned the alleged abuses.
The two-month investigation has resulted in 16 state and federal charges against Disney and five employees, most involving the deaths of vultures crammed into a tiny, overheated shed for days with limited food and water, The Orlando Sentinel reported.
The Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums is considering launching its own investigation, citing an 18-page report by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, and could revoke Disney's accreditation.
'It looks very, very bad,' said Robert Wagner, executive director of the accreditation association in Wheeling, W. Va.
The Sentinel said Disney officials at first blamed the problems on misunderstandings about the conditions of a federal permit that allowed the company to trap and relocate 100 black vultures.
But state officials ridiculed that response. When confronted with details including the confinement of 72 vultures in a windowless, airless shed legally big enough for only three, the beating of trapped vultures by workers and attempts to shoot hawks, Disney officials had no comment.
'We're still proud of what Discovery Island is and will work very closely with wildlife officials to make any corrections that need to be made,' said spokesman John Dreyer. 'We still intend to operate it as the first class facility that we have always intended it to be.'
Representatives of Disney have been ordered to appear Oct. 5 before a U.S. magistrate to face three counts of unlawfully trapping or trying to trap vultures, ibises and egrets, all protected species.
Disney could be fined up to $30,000 on the federal counts and could lose permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which allow it to operate the facility.
Disney and the Discovery Island curator, Charlie Cook, are due in state court Oct. 30 to faces charges of illegally trapping birds, improperly holding vultures while in captivity and improperly caring for them.
Lead keeper Harold Rejonis and keeper Jeff Goodman are accused of animal cruelty in the beating deaths of vultures. Donald Brumfield and Michael Cockrell, workers at the pigeon loft, are charged with illegally attempting to capture owls, hawks and falcons.
All the state charges are misdemeanors and carry penalties ranging from jail sentences of up to six months to fines of $500.
Disney had a federal permit to trap 100 vultures but may have trapped as many as 200, and never secured the necessary approval of its trapping methods, officials said.
Disney apparently decided to get rid of the vultures and other protected birds kept at the park after they attacked other animals, destroyed furnishings and generally made trouble, the state report said.
One Disney manager, Jim Found, told investigators Disney considered destroying the birds, legal only under extreme circumstances.
'He said that it was company policy that there should not be a permit or a request for a permit in a public file that indicated Walt Disney World Co. had requested a permit to kill animals,' the report said.
