Museum Director Pleads No Contest

A Fillmore naturalist has pleaded no contest to charges that he failed to obtain the proper permits for keeping exotic animals.

Karl Anderson, director of the Fillmore Museum of Natural History, entered his plea Monday, according to court records.

Anderson’s permit problems centered on five misdemeanor charges alleging illegal possession and failure to properly cage three protected animals at the museum--criminal counts similar to those Anderson pleaded guilty to in 1994, when he spent a brief time in an Oregon jail. One of the three animals, a type of flying squirrel known as a sugar glider, has died. The others, a Nile crocodile and a wallaby, are no longer kept at the museum.

Anderson, who had plans to convert part of the museum into a classroom for the instruction of animal trainers, was sentenced to 30 hours of community service and 36 months’ probation.