Pittsburgh zoo can't comply with proposed reptile ordinance

The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium can’t comply with a proposed city ordinance regulating crocodiles and alligators, according to the bill’s sponsor and a zoo official.

Council on Wednesday postponed a vote on the legislation to give members time to sort out the problem.

City Councilman Bruce Kraus last week introduced a bill that would ban the sale and ownership of alligators, crocodiles and a species of turtle known as the red-eared slider. It exempted zoos, so long as they maintain accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

However, the Pittsburgh zoo ended its accreditation with the association in 2015 over the organization’s safety policy that places limits on unprotected contact between elephants and keepers. It has since been in violation of its lease with the city, which owns the zoo, and would be in violation of the proposed ordinance, Kraus said during a council meeting.

The lease requires the same accreditation, he said.

Barbara Baker, the zoo’s president and CEO, said the facility is accredited with three other organizations — the American Humane Association, Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and Zoological Association of America — and complies with the intent of language in the lease, which runs through 2022. She asked council to exempt the zoo.

Kraus said he could not support an exemption because it would conflict with lease requirements.

“You’re asking me to turn a blind eye to your legal obligation to be accredited according to the lease you signed,” he said. “You signed a contract. You agreed to the obligation. Just because you have gone and sought other accreditation, which I thank you for and admire you for doing, you’re still legally bound under your requirement to have the Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation.”

Baker said the association was the only accrediting agency available to the zoo when it signed its lease in 1993. She said zoo is now accredited with organizations that have “many more strenuous accreditation processes.”

The zoo, she said, breeds Philippine crocodiles, the most endangered in the world. It recently received five gharial crocodiles, another endangered species, to be exhibited in a new facility, she said.

“All that we’re asking is for an exemption for the zoo,” she said.

Kraus said council, over the next week, will meet and work with zoo officials and attempt to resolve the problem. He said the zoo can resolve the issue by adding the accreditation or renegotiating its lease.

Mayor Bill Peduto said he hasn’t discussed the issue with council or the zoo.

“I’ll let council work through their alligator bill, and once it comes into my office, I’ll have the opportunity to speak to both,” Peduto said.