By: Caryn Tamber

Were you wondering why Venable was one of
the sponsors of the Maryland Zoo‘s new prairie dog
habitat?

No? Well, I was curious about the firm’s affinity for
the critters, so I asked.

Here’s the answer from former chairman Ben Civiletti, forwarded to me by a firm spokesman:

Our partner, Rob Zinkham, is on the Zoo Board and he appealed to the [Venable] Foundation to support the Zoo which was in dire straits several years ago. Because the Zoo is important to the children of the community, we made an unrestricted donation last year of $10,000 and a significant amount in the prior two years. We knew that the Zoo was making a special effort to develop an appealing attraction to little children called “Prairie Dog Town.” The Zoo intended to use our donation and that of other private donors to attract enough funds to install “Prairie Dog Town.” I assume that if enough funds were not developed, they would have used our unrestricted gift in other ways to improve the Zoo.

The vast majority of our contributions go for the needs of the poor, children, the arts, the elderly, the profession and victims of abuse.

Of course, The Sun writes today that the rascally rodents immediately tried to escape their new digs (pun intended–sorry), and some got pretty close to success:

As officials were promoting the return of the zoo’s 28 prairie dogs – their former digs had been out of sight in a closed section of the animal preserve for more than four years – some of the critters found ways to jump, climb and get over the walls of their prairie paradise, a centerpiece exhibit just inside the zoo’s main entrance.

None got away, but for a few anxious minutes, they found every weakness in the enclosure built to hold them. Zookeepers had to bring out nets to catch escapees.

This might have been a little embarrassing for the zoo, but it could be the start of a great new marketing campaign for Venable. I’m seeing a video of the prairie dogs intrepidly trying every path they can think of to get out, and then a tagline along the lines of, “Our lawyers don’t take no for an answer” or “Venable: We’ll find a way.” What law firm wouldn’t want to be associated with burrowing rodents?