422 chinchillas taken in largest local rescue

One of California’s biggest chinchilla farms was closed in Vista this week in what San Diego Humane Society & SPCA says is an animal rescue operation that could be the largest in county history.

In a joint operation between PETA and the Humane Society, the entire stock of 422 chinchillas at Adams Valley View Chinchilla Ranch was purchased with the help of longtime PETA donor Sam Simon, an L.A. television producer who co-created “The Simpsons.”

The animals were then donated to the Humane Society and taken to the organization’s shelters in San Diego and Oceanside.

Society President Gary Weitzman said he expects caring for the chinchillas until they can be adopted will cost the nonprofit up to $300,000.

“For us, we really want to take care of animals in San Diego County. It doesn’t matter what they are, we’ll take them in because it’s never the animal’s fault,” said Weitzman, who said adoptions of the furry, South American rodents will begin in about one to two weeks.

He describes chinchillas as docile, friendly, nocturnal creatures who chirp, live on pellets, nest in hay and require specially packaged “chinchilla dust” for taking their thrice-weekly dust baths.

Organizations like PETA have worked to close chinchilla ranches because many breed and sell animals for their skins. It can take as many as 150 pelts of the 1-pound rodents to create a chinchilla coat, and the species has been hunted to near-extinction in the wild.

The Adams Valley View Chinchilla Ranch has operated since 1966 on a hilltop above the Costco store in Vista. Owners Jim Adams, 95, and his wife, Lurlie, 90, sold the animals as pets for prices ranging from $69 to $205. Ranch employees say that some sick or dying animals were euthanized by electrocution and skinned for their pelts, a practice that long ago put the ranch on PETA’s watch list.

“The American Veterinary Association condemns electrocution in terms of killing,” said Lisa Lange, PETA’s senior vice president of communication. “It’s not codified in the animal cruelty statute of California, but PETA argues it should be.”

But Mark Lester, who manages the chinchilla ranch for the Adamses, said Wednesday that the ranch has never had any complaints or fines for animal cruelty, and the elderly couple was shocked to learn after the fact that PETA was behind the deal and had described the ranch as a “fur farm.”

“These are wonderful people who’ve done nothing wrong and they’re heartsick about the publicity this has generated,” Lester said. “These animals were sold as pets, not for their fur. We only euthanized them if they were on their deathbed or sick, maybe three or four out of 1,000. And the way we put them down was the most humane way possible.”

When PETA officials learned in July that the Adamses wanted to sell the business and retire, a volunteer went in with a hidden camera posing as a customer.

In a video now posted on the PETA website, ranch employees can be heard saying that some chinchillas that didn’t work out as pets were skinned for pelts, and that the animals were not given professional veterinary care. If an animal broke a leg, it would be given “six drops of brandy” as an anesthetic before its leg was amputated with “wire snips.”

The animals were also raised in cages by themselves, which Lange said is cruel to the highly social creatures.

Lange said PETA approached the Humane Society to ask if it could take the animals in and also approached Simon, who — since his 2012 diagnosis with terminal cancer — has devoted his time and money to favorite causes like PETA.

“With the time he’s got left, he wants to do as much as he can,” Lange said. “He has saved bears from concrete pits in roadside zoos in the South and he recently helped us on a decade-long campaign to get an elephant named Sunder, who was chained up in India, to a sanctuary.”

Simon not only wrote the check for an undisclosed amount to buy the chinchilla business, he also plans to donate $100,000 to the Humane Society to care for the animals until homes can be found, Lange said.

On Tuesday morning, Simon joined representatives from PETA and the San Diego Humane Society at the ranch on Busch Road. They spent eight hours transferring the animals into new cages, then PETA staff dismantled and removed the ranch’s cages so they can’t be used again. The sale did not include the property, where the Adamses are retired.

Ninety-five of the chinchillas are now at the Humane Society’s small animal shelter in Oceanside and the rest are at its main shelter in Mission Valley. Weitzman said in preparation for the rescue, the society bought 200 cages, each designed to hold a pair of chinchillas.

He said it will be a week or two before the chinchillas are ready for adoption. All must undergo health exams and the males will be neutered. The staff is also working to socialize the animals and put them in compatible pairs. They will only be adopted in groups of two or more.

“They need to be in pairs. It’s much easier that way,” Weitzman said. “I think it’s tragic when you don’t have animals together.”

The adoption fee has not been set, but Weitzman said it will likely be about $25 per chinchilla. A deep discount will be offered on the cages when pet owners buy it with a chinchilla pair. He hopes to find homes for all the animals in two to four months. For adoption information, visit sdhumane.org or call (619) 299-7012.

Weitzman said the chinchillas have been “absolute sweethearts” since they arrived on Tuesday.

“This is the public’s opportunity to have the softest-known creatures in the world that you will absolutely fall in love with,” he said.