City Council authorizes settlement negotiations in Tookie the Toucan case

Update (February 24, 2025): Council authorized the City Attorney's Office, in consultation with the city manager, to engage in settlement negotiations today.

(June 20, 2023): EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- ABC-7 has learned the El Paso Zoo's Toucan, known as Tookie, has been taken, and the city is suing for its return.

The city filed a lawsuit against Joe Krathwohl, also known as, "The Birdman," in January of 2021.

The lawsuit alleges that while acting as president of Birds N Beast Inc, Krathwohl donated the bird to the El Paso Zoological Society, which in turn donated Tookie to the El Paso Zoo.

The lawsuit states that at some point, Krathwohl took the bird, along with two bird cages, and a steel table. The city says Krathwohl failed to return the property despite numerous demands, costing the city lost revenue.

The city seeks the return of the Tookie and other property taken by Krathwohl. It also seeks damages.

We reached out to the city and received the following response:

"We served with lawsuit on April 4, 2023, and they failed to respond. We will now ask the court to enter a default judgement for not answering the lawsuit.

We will not provide any additional comments as this is still in litigation."

Ricardo Isaias

We reached out to the Krathwohl for comment. We will update this post when we hear back.