| July 20, 2006 Nancy Ganiard Smith , Staff Writer Offa humdrum industrial stretch in Culver City lurks a lush indoor junglefilled with exotic animals. Taking a walk on the wild side is made easyat Star Eco Station, an 18,000-sq.-ft.-facility on Jefferson Boulevard,where a faux Mayan temple is home to over 100 threatened and endangeredspecies: wild cats, tropical birds, reptiles and marine animals. Visitors are transported along mossy, dimly lighted paths to meet alively cast of characters including Jay the bobcat, an 18-ft.-longpython named Brutus, and Ozzie, a chatty, sometimes screechingcockatoo. Star Eco Station is less a mini-zoo and more a last-chance sanctuaryfor the nearly 200 animals who live there. The nonprofit organizationworks closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to rescueillegally imported animals and give them a home. Another big percentageof the center's inhabitants are pets that people no longer want or canhandle. The main mission of Eco Station, an offshoot of the STAR after-schoolenrichment program, is to teach children about wildlife preservationand the environment in a hands-on museum. Every year, 50,000 kids tour the facility; through a variety ofambitious outreach programs, the staff estimates they reach a total ofnearly 2 million students. Camp is now is full swing, with 1st through6th graders participating in themed weekly sessions such as "ReptilesRock," "Creepy Crawling Bugs" and "Animal Parts Up Close and Personal." "We are so grassroots you can almost taste the manure," says ErickBozzi, Jr., vice president and director of wildlife management. "Doingthings on a global level is really important, but if you don't startwith the kids,you're lost." Eco Station was founded in 1997 by Bozzi, his parents Erick, Sr. (nowdeceased) and Katya Bozzi, and his sister Katiana, who is director ofeducation and outreach. It is one of the stellar spin-offs of the STAR(Science, Theatre, Art, Recreation) education program, an award-winningseries of after-school enrichment classes, administered in publicschools throughout California, that Bozzi's parents created in 1986. The idea for Eco Station grew from the family's love of animals, bothbig and small, wild and tame. Part of the Bozzi family lore is how thechildren were conspicuous in their Westside neighborhood. "While otherkids would walk their dogs, my kids would walk their monitor lizard,"Katya Bozzi once told a reporter. At 18, Erick, Jr. took a job with L.A. Animal Care and Control; soonafter, the family's garage became a makeshift rescue center forexotics. Providing safe haven for unusual animals began this way in theearly '90s and has continued ever since. Red-eared sliders, one of the only animals kept at the Station that isnative to the U.S., is one of the first attractions in the center. Onceupon a time these turtles, easily recognized for the characteristic redstripe behind their eyes, were a staple of pet shops and popular amongchildren. Since 1976, it has been illegal to sell sliders under fourinches in diameter. "These turtles are not ideal pets for children," cautions assistantdirector Chandra Comstock during a recent tour. "They are hard to carefor and need lots of sunlight and vitamins." However, with the propercare, a four-inch turtle can grow as large as a foot in diameter andlive for 45 years. The oldest turtle in this crowd is Fern at 20. "We allow adoption of these turtles only to people with ponds," notes Comstock. "It's the most appropriate home." The Oscars, a freshwater fish native to South America, were all petsuntil they became too big. Eco Station is a shelter for these castoffs."It's one of these fish they sell at the pet store when they are twoinches long, but grow to over 75 pounds," Comstock says. "They're knownas tank busters." Carlos the alligator is another resident who outgrew his owner'sbackyard. In fact, when Animal Control needs to seize illegally keptalligators, they call the Eco Station to tackle the task. "They'retrained to handle dogs, cats and raccoons, not gators," Comstock says. Preservation extends even to coral, where a tank shows off brilliantsamplings stolen from reefs in places like Fiji and the Philippinesthat have been confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."Coral takes a couple hundred years to grow back," Comstock says of thedevastating impact caused by those who break off sections as souvenirs."They're really stealing the home for these fish." By far the most famous tenant of the Eco Station is Jay, a tame bobcatwith a playful personality. Jay, kept illegally as a pet in someone'shome, has undergone several operations since his rescue to alleviatepain caused by having been declawed. He is a winning mascot when EcoStation goes on the road to visit classrooms. Another popular character is Ozzie, a Salmon-crested Cockatoo fromIndonesia, who is often part of the center's "road show." Ozzie willlive to about 30, while the life span of macaws is over 100 years. At15, one of the macaws living at Eco Station had already lived in fourdifferent homes. The center will offer birds for adoption when theyapprove of conditions. "Birds like these are highly social and need at least three to fivehours of attention daily," says Comstock. "They're pretty much like ahuman child." Surprisingly, iguanas are the third most popular pet in the UnitedStates, something the Eco Station is reminded of daily by the contraststream of calls from owners wanting to get rid of their "pet." In L.A.County alone, 40,000 iguanas are put down every year. "They can be a good pet if you know you're getting a six-foot-longlizard with claws," Comstock says. "They need a lot of attention whenthey're babies in order to be able to handle them when they get big." Many of the Eco Station's iguanas have been transferred to Sacramento,where a new center opened last Saturday. The enormous success of theCulver City facility, which is completely funded by donations, allowsthe Bozzis to continue to expand. A third Eco Station is scheduled toopen in San Francisco in 2008. When 7-year-old Noelle Jimenez is asked about her favorite animal atEco Station, she leans toward the less exotic. "I like the hamsters,"she says. "They all have different personalities." STAR Eco Station is located at 10101 W. Jefferson Blvd. in Culver City.The center is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4p.m., with 1-1/2-hour tours beginning on the half hour. Contact:842-8060 or go online to www.ecostation.org. | 
