Accreditation for zoo at risk

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore could lose its national accreditation unless the aging facility fixes a host of expensive problems stemming from years of financial struggles.

The 132-year-old zoo has until September to correct dozens of shortcomings, most concerning infrastructure such as faulty fire alarms, decrepit buildings and drainage. Low wages for workers are another problem. The cost of the fixes could run as high as the zoo's current $12.5 million budget.

Failure to meet the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums won't close the zoo in Druid Hill Park, but it could result in loss of public support at a time when it is struggling to boost attendance and fundraising. The zoo also could lose animals, among them cheetahs and chimpanzees on loan from accredited zoos that participate in species breeding programs.

Donald P. Hutchinson, the former Baltimore County executive who is president of the zoo, stressed the importance of accreditation yesterday and acknowledged that it's at risk.

"They [the AZA] told me directly that it would difficult for us to hold on to accreditation," he said. "We haven't had a clean evaluation for a couple of reviews. That goes back over the past 10 years. It's a challenge for us."

Last week, the 160-acre facility needed the city to forgive $473,541 in overdue water bills. Last year, it struggled with a $3 million deficit, and Hutchinson said the zoo will need close to $1 million in emergency private financing to make it to July, when state funds for the new fiscal year are released.

"The problems we're talking about here didn't happen overnight," said Karl R. Kranz, the zoo's executive vice president for animal programs and chief operating officer. "It's been a long downward slide that the zoo has been on. It's going to take a while to correct everything."

The zoo has been accredited every five years since 1980 when it first earned the association's approval, which is displayed on the bottom of every page of the Maryland Zoo's Web site.

The 34-year-old Association of Zoos and Aquariums, based in Silver Spring, did not approve a new five-year accreditation in September after inspectors turned up dozens of problems last summer. Instead, it granted a one-year extension.

Zoos need only a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to operate. There are approximately 2,500 animal exhibitors with federal licenses, and 219 have AZA accreditation, among them the nation's major zoos, according to Denny L. Lewis, vice president of accreditation programs.

Fewer visitors would compound financial problems for the Maryland Zoological Society Inc., which runs the facility with state and local government grants, operating revenues and donations.

News of the accreditation problem could undercut the boost the zoo got with the birth of an elephant calf this month.

"The public will be disappointed to hear the condition that we're in," Kranz said. "They may choose to visit another zoo."

But loss of accreditation, or even its threat, has also led to a rallying of support for zoos, said Palmer Krantz III, executive director of the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C.

Krantz, the AZA board chairman, said the association reviews about 20 zoos twice annually and that about four operations are typically granted one-year extensions to fix problems.

"I've never seen a zoo [granted an extension] that didn't come back better and stronger than they were before," Krantz said.

When Atlanta's zoo lost the association's approval in the 1980s, "the city rebuilt the zoo from the bottom up," he said.

But the Maryland Zoo's chief operating officer said the work and its costs are daunting. "We made progress addressing some of the issues but not all of them," Kranz said.

None of the problems is related to animal care, he said.

One of the biggest issues concerns below-market salaries for entry-level and mid-level employees. The zoo employs about 180 full-time workers and 70 part-time employees, Hutchinson said.

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