ANIMAL LOVERS—Students from Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management program, above, break ground Tuesday for a new 12,400-square-foot training complex to be completed by early 2011. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers After 35 years teaching students to train and care for wildlife, the Exotic Animal Training and Management (EATM) program at Moorpark College will have a permanent building to call home by next spring.

Under cloudy skies Tuesday afternoon, Ventura County Community College District trustees, along with local school, city, county and state officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the new EATM complex.

Shovels and hard hats were lined up for the ceremonial groundbreaking, but in the background were backhoes and a bulldozer that would really get the job done.

The nearly $9-million project is being paid for through the $356million Measure S bond funds that Ventura County voters approved in 2002, and the building is expected to be ready for occupancy by April 2011.

Moorpark College President Pam Eddinger said during the ceremony that the day marked the beginning of a new era for EATM.

“The building has been a long time coming and a dream for this campus,” she said. “And thanks to the foresight of our community and support of the Measure S bond, it’s now a reality.”

For the students, faculty and staff of the EATM program, the construction crews will be a welcome temporary addition to America’s Teaching Zoo. They’re happy to bid adieu to the days of modular classrooms.

First-year EATM student Emily Rovetti, 21, said she is thrilled to see the new building go up and hopeful that it will be completed before she graduates from the two-year program.

“When you work here the zoo really becomes a part of you because you’re here every day, all day, building stuff and fixing stuff,” the Reno, Nev., native said. “Just to have this big building and this new, really nice facility is going to be really exciting.”

Gary Wilson, a 1977 graduate of the program and now a professor specializing in animal training, is also eager for the two-story, 12,400-square-foot complex.

“It means I finally get a permanent office,” he laughed. “I’ve been in a trailer most of my life here. . . . The program has always existed sort of on a shoestring.”

Once complete, the building will house two classrooms, one veterinary lab, a 100-seat auditorium, a bookstore and offices for faculty and staff.

The official entrance to the zoo is currently being redone, and a bus unloading area is being built to serve as a drop-off site for local schoolchildren who visit.

EATM was first offered as a major at the college in 1974, and the program started with just one animal—Kiska, a gray wolf. As more animals were slowly added, the lower compound, as it is called, was constructed near the existing football stadium.

In 1990, it was decided that the program needed a better home that didn’t flood during winter rains, so the compound moved to its current location on a 5-acre parcel overlooking all of Moorpark College.

The new complex, whose design deviates from the rest of the architecture on campus, with rooflines emulating the wings of a bird—will be built into the ridgeline at the current site.

“One of the evolutions of the program was moving into America’s Teaching Zoo in 1990,” said Wilson, who served as director of the program for 15 years after EATM founder Bill Brisby retired in 1985. “It was a much bigger facility and better accommodations for our animals, so I see this (new) building as a further step in that evolution of the program and us becoming a more and more permanent fixture at the college.”

The zoo houses more than 100 different animals, many of which are endangered in the wild, have been permanently disabled or otherwise can’t survive on their own.

The only program of its kind in the United States, EATM takes just 100 students each academic year, and about half of its graduates become trainers and keepers at zoos and animal parks, Eddinger said.

While the new structure will give the program a sense of permanence, Michlyn Hines, zoo operations supervisor since 2001, said it also gives the students the proper facilities that they need to learn in.

“The big auditorium is going to be tiered, and it was designed with the idea that we could actually bring animals into the lecture portion of it so that we can use animals more effectively in our teaching,” she said.

After eight years in the making, school officials and students are glad to see the project get under way, especially since it was stalled for a while, in part due to increasing construction costs.

“We thought it had been scrapped for good, but it was revived, which is awesome,” Hines said. “I feel like we’re really, really lucky to be able to have this.”

The zoo is open every weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This month, the zoo will present its 20th annual Spring Spectacular March 13 and 14, 20 and 21 and 27 and 28.

The student-produced fundraiser includes wild animal shows, VIP tours and activities for kids. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for children and seniors.