TAMPA, Fla. _ Accusations that a controversial ZooTampa veterinarian killed at least two manatees with medical malpractice are not true, according to a report that zoo officials submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last Friday and discussed with reporters Monday.
That clears veterinarian Ray Ball to return to treating all of the zoo's various animals _ except for one: manatees.
Zoo officials said Monday they will not allow Ball to treat any manatees "while zoo management ... works with Dr. Ball to develop stronger, routine collaborative practices and to improve communication with staff and peers." Instead, another veterinarian, Lauren Smith, will be in charge of manatees the zoo treats "for an indefinite period."
"There were issues raised in the review" about Ball failing to communicate with co-workers or other veterinarians about why he was taking the steps he was taking in caring for injured and sick manatees, said Joe Couceiro, president and chief executive officer of ZooTampa.
One of the big communication concerns: Ball failed to cite specific scientific reasons for taking some medical steps that ran contrary to the normal forms of treatment for manatees, zoo officials said.
A zoo spokeswoman had said Ball was trying out some experimental treatments for a grant, although a federal agency spokesperson said that such experiments are not covered by the zoo's federal permit and a spokesman for the agency that gave the grant said that wasn't its purpose.
On a conference call with reporters Monday, zoo attorney Deborah Brown said that all of Ball's work "has been within the scope of the permit." However, Larry Killmar, the zoo's senior vice president and chief zoological officer, acknowledged that there are no written standards of care for treating manatees, and "there is room for improvement in that."
Until the Fish and Wildlife Service approves the renewal of the zoo's permit to handle manatees, the zoo cannot use its newly renovated David A. Straz, Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center. The center is ready to reopen after being shut down for a year for a taxpayer-funded $3 million upgrade to the manatee tank's water filtration system. While the care center was out of commission, hundreds of manatees have been sickened or killed by the state's lengthy Red Tide algae bloom.
"We are trying to get back in business," zoo spokeswoman Kristy Chase-Tozer said.
In addition to the other steps regarding manatee care, zoo officials said they would also make changes in their Animal Welfare Committee, the group that deals with any problems regarding care of the zoo's animals. The object is to make the committee more accessible to employees with concerns.
However, Couceiro said, that is not an acknowledgement that there had been any previous complaints about Ball, despite statements by former employees that they had complained and been ignored.
To deal with the federal agency's questions, the zoo hired three manatee experts to review Ball's work under the guidance of a New York attorney, who wrote a 16-page report to the agency. Zoo officials said they would not share the report with the public until Tuesday at noon, although they were willing to answer questions about its contents.
On Oct. 22, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent ZooTampa officials a letter citing "credible reports" of medical malpractice that harmed manatees. The letter said Ball must "cease all activities involving manatees" during an investigation into the charges. The zoo's own permit for treating and exhibiting the marine mammals may be in jeopardy, the letter said.
The letter pointed to four aspects of Ball's medical treatment that raised questions.
The first involved a treatment called "chest taps." When manatees are hit by boats, their ribs can break and puncture a lung so they are unable to submerge. A chest tap involves sticking a needle into the manatee's chest to remove the air and determine the size of the puncture. But the needle can go in too deep and puncture the lung again.
"After chest taps were performed by Dr. Ball," the federal agency's letter said, "two manatees died, and the necropsy reports showed perforations in the lungs from chest taps."
Killmar said that documents showed that an after-death examination of the two manatees _ called a necropsy _ did not find that the chest taps were the cause of death.
The second item involves the rescue of wild manatees that had become entangled in fishing line.
"On more than one occasion," the letter stated, "Dr. Ball performed in-field amputations of manatees' flippers, at times without treatment for infection and pain, and at times releasing the manatees with exposed bones."
Zoo officials acknowledged that Ball, on at least one occasion, released a manatee missing a flipper without providing follow-up care. However, the manatee was seen later, alive, so they contended that meant the manatee's care was adequate.
The third point looked at drugs Ball used on injured or ailing manatees.
"On more than one occasion," the letter said, "experimental drugs and/or experimental methods of administering drugs were used." He would give combinations of drugs "for which he did not have or did not use equipment needed for the procedure." Zoo officials acknowledged Ball failed to explain his reasons for such treatment to other employees or manatee experts.
The final point, the letter said, concerned "the feeding of hay to young/growing manatees or animals that are physically compromised." Hay offers no nutritional value to manatees, which eat aquatic plants. However, it does tend to be cheaper. Zoo officials said that was addressed in the report but did not explain how.
While the letter offered no clue as to where the "credible reports" came from, documents from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission showed that the complaints about slicing off flippers originated there with the state's top manatee expert, Martine de Wit. She objected to Ball's decision to cut off a flipper and turn an injured manatee loose with no follow-up care, but he overruled her. She then took her concerns to the federal agency.
In response, zoo spokeswoman Chase-Tozer said Ball's work was supported by a grant that allowed him to experiment with new ways to deal with those kinds of cases. The grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, according to Chase-Tozer, called for Ball "to develop and implement field treat-and-release opportunities for entanglements, including amputations, and underweight young, independent animals."
But according to Rob Blumenthal, a spokesman for the foundation, that's not accurate. The $302,000 grant to the zoo was intended "to enhance (the zoo's) capacity to respond to injured marine mammals, including manatees, and increase data collection to inform future management," he said.
Meanwhile, a federal wildlife agency spokeswoman, Laury Parramore, said that the zoo's permit to handle and treat manatees is not sufficient to cover any sort of experimental medical treatment on injured flippers or anything else. Instead the zoo would need a special experimental permit.
Ball, 52, of Carrollwood, is a 1992 graduate of the University of Florida's School of Veterinary Medicine who got his start with the Midway Animal Hospital in Homosassa. He later worked at Busch Gardens in Tampa prior to becoming the head veterinarian at what was then known as the Lowry Park Zoo in 2010.
