A freedom of information request reveals that 57 of its 305 animals died in 2018, including 7 primates, 5 tortoises, 5 parakeets, 2 meerkats, and 1 caiman crocodile.
MATTHA BUSBY: A zoo in Wales that made headlines in 2017 after a lynx escaped suffered the deaths of one in five of its animals in 2018, it has emerged… Reports of animals dying in mysterious circumstances began to surface after an escaped lynx was shot dead by a marksman in late 2017 and another was killed accidentally by strangulation while being moved shortly after. A number of other deaths followed…
Some of the reports originated when a volunteer animal handler, Mark Anthony, accused the zoo, which had recently been taken under new ownership by Tracy and Dean Tweedy, of neglect and keeping the animals in inadequate conditions. The Tweedys have denied the claims. They blame old age and natural causes for a number of the deaths, including those of a wallaby, a squirrel monkey, and a 22-year-old leopard, and said a Burmese python died of a chronic respiratory problem…
The true scale of the deaths is now clear. A stock list disclosed by Ceredigion council in response to a freedom of information request reveals that 57 of its 305 animals died in 2018. Five of seven marginated tortoises, seven of 30 primates, five of six parakeets, two of nine meerkats, one of two caiman crocodiles, all seven African giant snails and all five stick insects were among the animals that died, while many others left the zoo.
Anthony is also accused by the Tweedys of selling a number of primates and a crocodile, which reportedly ended up in the pet trade. He has denied all of the claims against him, describing them to the Times as “absolute nonsense” and “downright lies”. Postmortem documents from Wales Veterinary Science Centre seen by the Guardian note the ibises’ “sudden” deaths. One had ingested a 7cm piece of wood, and another had swallowed a large piece of glass and a long cable tie.
However, postmortems did not take place for every death. It has been claimed that poor shelter and bad management led to the deaths of two monkeys, while Anthony said rats had infested the aviary and animals were kept in cold conditions after the heating broke…
Campaigners have called for the zoo’s closure. “Borth Wild Animal Kingdom has repeatedly failed to meet its legal requirements to keep wild animals and has put the welfare of animals and the public at risk,” said a spokesperson for the charity Freedom for Animals, which made the FoI request. “It’s time Borth zoo was shut down permanently.” SOURCE…
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