WILD THINGS ANIMAL PROGRAM PROFILED IN BOOK AUTHOR SPENT TIME AT EATM.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

MOORPARK -- Veterans of the Moorpark College Exotic Animal Training and Management Program got a unique chance to look at themselves with the publication this month of ``Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers.''

``My initial reaction was, wow! I was really entertained,'' said Mara Rodriguez, a member of the zoo's operations staff. ``How many people get to read about themselves in a book?''

Author Amy Sutherland, who lives in the Boston area and wrote ``Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America,'' said cooking and animals are her favorite subjects.

So she was intrigued when she learned about the Moorpark program that trains students to work with animals in television, films, amusement parks and zoos.

The first time she set foot on the Moorpark campus, she knew there would be plenty of material for her second book.

``I eventually got to the point where I could not pull myself away from that place. It was a magical kingdom,'' Sutherland said. ``I would be just ready to leave, and someone would say, `Do you want to go for a walk with the baboons?'''

The Moorpark program, established in 1974 with one wolf, now has about 200 animals on five acres overlooking the campus.

Sutherland said the animals and the people there became equal characters in her book, published this month by Viking.

``It's about humans and animals trying to communicate with each other. Their stories interweave,'' Sutherland said. ``This is the only place like this in the country.''

One thing that created interest in her book was the program's almost-military discipline, where the uniformed students face a ``kind of boot camp mentality.''

``The students are predominantly women, so this is kind of a male model being applied to women,'' she said. ``It makes for a hothouse atmosphere. It can become very dramatic and emotional.''

Rodriguez noted that the Moorpark program also gained fame in 2001 when it was featured on a 13-episode Animal Planet show called ``Moorpark 24/7.''

``I always find it amazing, the fact that people are interested in the place I go to work every day,'' she said. ``I just count my blessings that I have a job that I love and other people find interesting.''

James Peddie, a retired Thousand Oaks veterinarian who was director of the Moorpark program in 2003 when Sutherland was doing her research, had the same kind of reaction as Rodriguez to the book.

``I said, whoa! It was revealing to the point it was almost painful, because I'm a modest person. I've never been portrayed on the printed page.''

But Peddie said he was honored by Sutherland's book, which he felt had no particular agenda other than to create an accurate and entertaining picture.

``There is no dancing around,'' he said. ``If someone had a personality quirk, it's there. It's a very honest portrayal of the program.''

Peddie, who once cared for creatures at the old Jungleland compound in Thousand Oaks that supplied animals for the movie industry, said Sutherland's book helps explain how the Moorpark program benefits from being near Hollywood and the entertainment industry and why graduates wind up working on films and television shows.

``There is a direct correlation between the entertainment industry and the EATM Program,'' he said.

``The EATM Program is a doorway that will get you into the entertainment industry today.''

Peddie said Sutherland also conveyed the program's value in helping young people grow up and become responsible adults.

``Her book is very entertaining, and she weaves into it our philosophy of education, a very practical, hands-on rigorous program. It's almost like the military, tremendously structured.

``We're working every day with lions, tigers and wolves, animals that can really hurt you. The students are taught responsibility, people skills.''

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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IF YOU GO

America's Teaching Zoo at Moorpark College is open to the public Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wildlife Education Shows are held at noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for children and seniors. For more information, call [phone].

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color -- ran in Simi edition only) Above, student Greg Hall places Laramie, a rescued golden eagle, on a scale before moving him out of his pen at Moorpark College's Exotic Animal Training and Management Program. At left, Junga, a female lemur, eats her lunch.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color in Simi edition only) Melissa Madrid feeds Janga, a female lemur, her lunch at Moorpark College's Exotic Animal Training and Management Program on Saturday. The EATM Program is featured in a new book about its students.

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IF YOU GO (see text)