Saint Louis Zoo Faces Questions Amid Researcher Retaliation Controversy

Courtesy Flickr / Yi-Liang (Lucas) Liu

The Saint Louis Zoo in Forest Park

The Saint Louis Zoo is caught up in a controversy rocking the animal research world that  involves a campaign of retaliation against one scientist who accused another prominent animal researcher of sexual harassment.  

As reporter Asher Elbein laid out last week in a long story for Undark, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, known as the AZA, recently paid a $2.8 million settlement to an orangutan research expert. Due to the nature of the case, the Riverfront Times and Undark are declining to name the victim.

The AZA is a professional organization that grants accreditation to zoos, including the one here in St. Louis.

AZA's $2.8 million payment settled a sexual harassment lawsuit stemming from an incident at a 2018 AZA conference in Seattle.  According to the lawsuit, Ronda Schwetz, the executive zoo director of the Henry Vilas Zoo in Milwaukee, insisted she share a room with the orangutan researcher. The researcher said that Schwetz returned to the room intoxicated and was sexually aggressive toward him. He later awoke in the middle of the night to find Schwetz on top of him naked.

Schwetz denied the incident, but the association reached the multimillion dollar settlement in December of last year, at which time it issued a letter saying that it had failed to take action against Schwetz or intervene on behalf of the researcher as he faced wider "retaliatory conduct." 

"Shortly after the victim resisted the alleged sexual assault, the assailant and her close associates … began interfering with his research and employment opportunities," the letter says. 

This is where the Saint Louis Zoo comes into play. 

The researcher applied for a job at the zoo in March of 2019, was one of two finalists, but was ultimately turned down. According to the Undark article and depositions from the suit brought against the AZA, the rejection may have been a part of the broader campaign of retaliation. 

The zoo told the RFT in a statement, "The Saint Louis Zoo was not a party to this lawsuit, and was never accused of being involved in any improper conduct directed at the plaintiff in this lawsuit. The only reason that our Zoo was mentioned in this Undark article was because the plaintiff applied for a position at the Zoo in 2017 [sic], and this lawsuit settled before the Zoo had the opportunity to participate in any of the legal proceedings that would have demonstrated that there was no connection between this lawsuit and the filling of that position."

According to the Undark article, after the researcher applied for the job in St. Louis, Schwetz's former research collaborator Lori Perkins texted David Powell, the Saint Louis Zoo's director of research, about the victim.

"Your old friend [the researcher] is being brought in for an interview for Wildcare …" Perkins wrote. According to Perkins’ deposition, she was aware the researcher and Powell had a dispute in the past.

"Yes I'm gonna be there lol," Powell replied.

Perkins wrote that she wanted to be sure there was someone in place to "ensure good diligence. You're that thing. Whew."

"Okay, good," Powell wrote. She went on in the text exchange to say that the researcher "rubs a lot of people the wrong way." She compared him to Pig Pen from Peanuts. 

The researcher did not get the job, despite leaving a positive impression on other staff. 

"He had so many incredible ideas and was so charismatic and so excited about the work that we do at Saint Louis Zoo," said one zoo employee who did want to be named. 

This employee said that he always wondered why the researcher didn't get the job until reading the Undark article last week.

"Today there was a lot of talk about him amongst the staff and people and remembering his interview because nearly the entire staff was there for the lunch and his presentation," the employee said.

A few months after that 2019 interview, the researcher was hired at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. However, Schwetz and Perkins contacted his new boss there and voiced "serious–but vague" concerns about him, according to the Undark article. 

The researcher was fired from that zoo after a week on the job.