Audit: Salisbury owes Lowry Park Zoo $200K

Tampa's final audit says that's the value of items and services the zoo's former leader took. Next: negotiations on how much the zoo gets back. Follow the link to read more and post comments.

Salisbury resigns from Zoological Association of America

TAMPA -- Lex Salisbury, who resigned under pressure last week from his longstanding job as president of Lowry Park Zoo, is also stepping down from the Zoological Association of America, an organization of zoos and private exotic animal businesses where he served on the board of directors.

Last five of Salisbury's missing monkeys found

The last five Patas monkeys that escaped from an island at Lex Salisbury’s private Safari Wild park have been found – and one of them is dead.

Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the surviving four monkeys have been brought back to Safari Wild, which reported their return to authorities.

Morse said he did not have any details about how one of the monkeys was shot. However he said shooting the monkey did not necessarily violate Florida law, because the monkeys are non-native animals without specific protection as an endangered species. He said the monkeys were found not far from the Safari Wild park in Polk County either yesterday or today.

A total of 15 monkeys escaped from Safari Wild on April 19, after somehow making their way off a 1-acre island surrounded by a wide moat. That drew increasing scrutiny to dealings between Salisbury's private park and his role as the director of Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. Salisbury stepped down as zoo director today in the midst of the controversy.

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Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer

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Lowry Park Zoo president resigns

[Kainaz Amaria | Times]

UPDATE: Lex Salisbury has resigned as Lowry Park Zoo president. Board members said they are not considering a severance package at this time.

TAMPA -- Outside the meeting place of the Lowry Park Zoo's board of directors, where the fate of embattled zoo president Lex Salisbury, above, will be decided this morning, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies are standing guard.

The 10 a.m. meeting, closed to the public, is at the Mainsail Suties Hotel and Conference Center, 5108 Eisenhower Boulevard. Suspended president Salisbury is expected to answer questions about a recent city audit that accuses him of misuse of zoo animals and resources.

Five deputies are guarding the door and were hired by the hotel, but it's not clear who's paying them. Zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson will not say if the zoo is footing the bill.

When asked whether he thought it would be fair for public dollars to be used to keep the public out of the meeting, city spokesman and board member Santiago Corrada said he wasn't aware the deputies were hired.

Corrada said he would not make a motion to open the meeting of the private board to the public because "I don't want to put the board in that position," he said. "I want the board to have a frank and open discussion."

The mayor has expressed her desire that the meeting be open, but she can't do anything to make that happen.

Board member Susan Valdez, a Hillsborough County School Board member, said: "It should be open. It's public dollars. This is a public zoo."

A news conference is expected to take place at noon.

Your take on Salisbury's departure?

Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer

Zoo president's wife cited by animal control

[Michael C. Weimar | Times]

TAMPA -- The wife of Lowry Park Zoo president Lex Salisbury was cited for animal cruelty after leaving two small dogs unattended in a car, according to Hillsborough County Animal Control. It all happened during a board meeting today regarding Salisbury's questionable actions while head of the zoo.

The window of the gold Nissan Pathfinder was cracked for the two dogs -- a Welsh terrier and another terrier mix, but according to Marti Ryan, Animal Services spokeswoman, that's not good enough. When an Animal Services officer took the temperature inside the vehicle, it was 90 degrees. The car was likely hotter than that, as a door had been open for about 10 minutes before the reading.

"You're not wearing a fur coat. You try being kept in that car," Ryan said. "We're talking about the midday in Florida. Holy cow."

Ryan said the officer reported that the dogs were heavily panting, but had not yet gone into distress. She said an anonymous witness called in the complaint outside the Mainsail Suites Hotel and Conference Center, 5108 Eisenhower Blvd.

Salisbury's wife, Mary Louise Sheppa, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. She was fined $270 for the cruelty citation and another $390 because neither dog was vaccinated or wore a tag.

Ryan said Sheppa told the officer that she'd brought the dogs along and left them in the car because she was on her way to a doctor's appointment. "That just doesn't jibe," Ryan said.

"The good news for Mr. Salisbury's investigation today was that perhaps all that attention that he brought to himself ... could have saved these dogs lives," Ryan said.

It's Your Times: Have your say

Kim Wilmath, Times staff writer

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Zoo president's bumper sticker: Enjoy more beef

At about 11 a.m., Salisbury arrived at the zoo board meeting in a tan, older-model Nissan Pathfinder with a front license tag that says, "Enjoy more beef."

Sharing the backseat with his safari hat were two small lap dogs, left in the car with the windows cracked. When Salisbury's wife noticed members of the media peering into the windows to get a glimpse, she parked the car in the far end of another lot, dogs still inside.

Alexandra Zayas, Times staff writer

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