Infected Ducks Seized at Kern County Refuge : Wildlife: Venice birds under quarantine are to be killed in Sacramento, officials say. State appeals court rejects activists’ plea to save the fowl.

As supporters of the Venice ducks and geese unsuccessfully appealed in court, government wildlife officers confiscated 71 more of the diseased fowl Friday from a Kern County refuge.

At 2:30 p.m., a game warden and a biologist from the state Department of Fish and Game seized 63 ducks, eight geese and four-dozen eggs from the Morningstar Ranch in Inyo-Kern, where the birds had been transported by Venice residents and quarantined since May 24.

“They’re being transferred live to Sacramento, and they’ll be euthanized there,” said Patrick Moore, spokesman for the state agency. Barbara Eustis-Cross, who runs the facility, “gave them up without any problem.”

Eustis-Cross did not return telephone calls. But Michael Rotsten, one of two attorneys for the duck supporters, said Eustis-Cross was told by wildlife officials that the birds were to be taken to Sacramento for testing.

“They (officials) came at the heat of the day,” Rotsten said. “It was over 100 degrees. The birds were already stressed from the heat. There will be birds lost in transport.”

Activists for the ducks were stunned at the news. They vowed that they would block passage to the Venice Canals to prevent game wardens and biologists from capturing and killing more fowl, which have been exposed to the duck virus enteritis, a fatal herpes virus that wildlife officials fear could infect millions of waterfowl that traverse the Pacific Flyway each year.

“I can’t believe it,” said Bill Dyer, a Venice resident and organizer of the waterfowl activists. “This is devastating. . . . They were quarantined, not in harm’s way of anything. This is madness. They were safer there than here.”

The activists spent the day--from 5:30 a.m. until long after dark--camped on the bridges that span the canals, keeping tabs on wildlife officials via police-band radios. Government officials had hoped to capture and kill more ducks Friday, but the continuing flow of demonstrators kept them at bay.

While government officials were confiscating the waterfowl in Inyo-Kern on Friday afternoon, Yolanda Copeland, another attorney for the duck supporters, was at the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles trying to get court protection for the birds.

On Wednesday, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge ruled that he did not have the authority to stop state and federal officials from doing their jobs, capturing and killing the birds. Two weeks earlier, another judge had granted a temporary restraining order to stop any killing until Wednesday’s hearing.

On Friday, a 2nd District Court of Appeal panel also refused to block wildlife officials, rejecting a request to spare the estimated 275 ducks that remain in the canals and nearby wetland areas.

“The next legal step is to go to the California Supreme Court on Monday,” Rotsten said. “But I’m not sure what the people want to do.”

About 58 birds have died of the duck plague, state officials said. Forty-eight more were captured from Washington Pond in Marina del Rey and killed Thursday; the 73 from Kern County will be killed when they reach Sacramento.

“I’m shocked,” said Stacey Straton, a resident of the Venice Canals and an organizer of the effort to save the ducks. “Of course, I’ve been shocked before. I’ve been shocked through this whole thing.”