The director of Britain’s “worst zoo” promised improvements when he took over from a Stetson-wearing, Ferrari-driving millionaire and his former beauty queen wife, but now he has been forced to close.
Karen Brewer took control of South Lakes Park in 2017 after previous owner David Gill had his license revoked following a series of tragedies and controversies, including the death of a young zookeeper in a tiger attack. Became the manager of a safari zoo.
Mr Gill first opened the 51-acre attraction in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1994.
Activists have long raised concerns about activities there, including animals being run over by miniature trains and electrocuted by fences.
The zoo was also fined £255,000 after 24-year-old Sarah McCrae was attacked and killed by a Sumatran tiger during Mr Gill’s tenure.
Mr Brewer vowed to reverse the situation once he took control, even allowing BBC cameras to film the warts and all documentary Trouble at the Zoo, which aired in February 2018.
She said at the time: “We wanted to show that working with animals and running a complex business is emotional and difficult, and this show captures that well, and we I felt it showed that we are all human beings.”
But as recently as October this year, disturbing photos of dead and injured animals were released, and now owners Cumbria Zoo Company have announced that the zoo will close on December 31st.
Karen Brewer (left), director of Cumbria Zoo Company Limited, which operates South Lakes Safari Zoo, announced this week that the zoo will close on December 31st.
A series of tragic losses at Cumbria’s South Lakes Safari Zoo has sparked outrage from activists, and it has been revealed the zoo will close at the end of this year.
The attraction was first opened in 1994 by former owner David Gill. Pictured with his wife Frida Rivera Shriver. She joined the zoo staff shortly after her wedding in 1994.
Mr Gill’s previous owner, the zoo, was awarded £255,000 at Preston Crown Court in June 2016 for health and safety defects related to Mr McCrae’s death in May 2013. was sentenced to a fine.
A zookeeper has been fined an additional £42,500 after pleading guilty to other health and safety breaches when he fell from a ladder while preparing to feed big cats in July 2014. It was done.
The zoo officially opened in May 1994 after Stetson-wearing Mr Gill bought farmland in Dalton-in-Furness.
Since then, he has not been immune to drama and controversy. Among them: allegedly cheating on his first wife with a teenage zookeeper he later married, nearly being killed by the jealous husband of a married man he had conquered, and allegedly telling another zoo worker he was fired. This includes being taken to court. her pregnancy.
In 1997, three years after South Lakes Safari Zoo opened, Mr Gill, who had been married to his first wife Alison for 12 years and had two children, had an affair with 17-year-old kangaroo keeper Shelley Goodwin. .
At the time, he was quoted as saying, “It’s not a problem for me to have a relationship with a young girl.” That’s what I want to do.
“My relationship with Alison fell apart before I hired Shelly. I know it’s unconventional, but I’ve never lived my life by rules.”
Mr Gill married Sherry in 2000, but by 2003 he was living with a woman named Caroline and had two more children with him.
As recently as October, harrowing photos were released showing dead and injured animals at a zoo in Cumbria.
Reported incidents included a capybara that was riddled with cuts believed to have been caused by a struggle, and a zebra whose hoof got stuck in an enclosure fence and had to be disposed of later.
In 2008, a zoo owner who discovered that Mr. Gill and his wife were having an affair was stabbed by the agitated husband.
Former rugby league player Richard Cleary, 38, slashed Gill in the neck while he was in bed with Alison Cleary.
He fled in his pajamas, and Cleary was initially arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and then sentenced to five years in prison, but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated robbery with intent to cause actual bodily harm.
In another controversy, 39-year-old Barrow-in-Furness resident Lara Grant won a sex discrimination case against the zoo in 2001.
Former Lara Kitson, who was 23 and pregnant at the time, was fined £30,000 by Carlisle court after it emerged Mr Gill ordered her to climb a 16ft pole to feed the lions. ordered to pay compensation.
Lara said when she expressed concerns that her unborn child might be at risk, Mr Gill told her to consider whether to continue with the pregnancy.
Meanwhile, in 1997, a three-tonne white rhino escaped from its enclosure and was shot dead by Mr Gill, who was fined £10,000 for failing to contain the animal.
In 2006, a lemur escaped from its enclosure, and two years later, three wooden huts where the lemurs were kept were destroyed in a fire, killing 31 people. The park was criticized again in 2006 after the fire was thought to have been caused by a malfunctioning heater.
Then-owner David Gill is seen outside Manchester Crown Court for a health and safety hearing following the death of employee Sarah McCrae, who was killed by a tiger in 2016.
Pictured is David Gil’s third wife, former Peruvian beauty queen Frida Rivera-Schreiber.
Mr. Gil then married former Peruvian beauty queen Frida Rivera Shriver, and shortly after their elaborate Peruvian beachside wedding in 2014, she became director of veterinary services at the zoo.
She is the granddaughter of the Peruvian ambassador to Tokyo, and has a mother who is also a socialite, also known as Frida, and a former beauty queen.
Cumbria County Council revoked Gill’s license in 2016, but Brewer’s company was granted permission to run the zoo in May the following year.
The death toll also includes a jaguar that bit off its own leg, a rhino that was crushed to death by its partner, and a giraffe that was shot dead after collapsing.
The borough council has slammed “deplorable” standards of welfare and lack of veterinary care.
Mr. Brewer’s time as director began after Mr. Gill’s zoo welcomed 250,000 visitors a year at its peak. A closure order was issued in 2016.
Tests revealed that 486 animals died there between December 2013 and September 2016. Two leopards partially eaten by other animals, a monkey found behind a radiator, and seven healthy lion crabs destroyed due to lack of space.
But an undercover visit in 2022 by experts from the charity Born Free said the standards still caused alarm, even though Mr Gill was no longer involved.
Mr Gil, who appointed a former Ferrari-driving owner and Peruvian beauty queen’s third wife as head veterinarian, had previously been accused of “deplorable” welfare standards.
A young monkey was seen clinging to mesh under a heating lamp at South Lakes Safari Zoo amid concerns that its habitat is not kept warm enough.
They see monkeys clinging to the edges of their enclosures to get access to heat lamps, rhinos confined to small huts barely able to turn around, and Andes bears swaying and testing electric fences with their paws. Concerns have been raised, including that it has been witnessed.
The latest harrowing photos taken in October include a capybara covered in gashes, said to have been caused by a fight, and a zebra whose hoof got caught in the iron bars of its enclosure, which later had to be put down. was.
This follows an alarming inspection report in July which found “factors of grave concern”, including a student being left alone with a dangerous animal on work experience.
Wildlife conservation groups have welcomed the news of the impending closure, but have also raised concerns about the possibility that some of the zoo’s animals may be transferred to other parks run by the same company.
M.S. Cumbria Zoo CEO Brewer insisted the attraction met all regulatory requirements, but said this week: The company was currently focusing on a 120-acre site in Tebay, 40 miles away, that it was considering operating as a nature and wildlife park.
“During the transition period, all animals will continue to be cared for and receive the best veterinary care,” she said in a statement.
“We are working with various agencies, including two zoo consultants, to find a new home suitable for their long-term needs.”
Chris Lewis, captive research and policy manager at Born Free, which campaigns for zoos to close, said of the new closure announcement: “While we are pleased to see today’s announcement, the exact details about the future of the animals and the zoo itself remain unknown.”
“Born Free urges all parties to work together to ensure the welfare of the animals remains our top priority until they are found suitable homes.”