Family zoo dream under threat as debts mount
AYOUNG family’s dream of running their own zoo faces being shattered – after falling almost £350,000 into debt.
Dean and Tracy Tweedy left a comfortable life in Kent to move more than 200 miles with their three young girls to buy the zoo in the Welsh countryside.
But after just 15 months the couple are battling to save their dream as they face a move to wind-up their company by creditors.
Novices Dean, 50, and Tracy, 47, confessed they hardly knew anything about running Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, near Aberystwyth, when they upped sticks from Sittingbourne in Kent for a new life. And they were banned from keeping lions and leopards after being blamed for the death of two lynxes.
Eighteen-month-old lynx Lillith was shot dead after escaping from her enclosure by jumping over an electric fence last October and sparking a 12-day search. She was shot by a marksman at a caravan park over fears that she could attack children.
A second lynx was later found to have been accidentally strangled in a “handling error” by staff at the zoo.
The zoo was then closed and prohibited in 2017 from keeping dangerous animals, which were the zoo’s biggest attractions. They included male lion Zulu, lioness Wilma, leopard Raja and royal python Gogo.
That ban was reversed last month after an inspection of the zoo.
Ceredigion Council said it had decided to lift the ban on the condition that a qualified and experienced keeper was employed.
But a petition at the High Court in London now threatens to crush the hopes of the Tweedys and their three daughters – Sophie, 14, Sarah, 10, and Paige, nine.
The zoo has won a temporary reprieve from moves to wind up the company, which is believed to owe creditors almost £350,000, with a further hearing scheduled for September 19.
The petition to wind up the zoo, whose website motto is “a little zoo with a big heart” was applied for earlier this summer by one of its creditors, financial leasing services Grenke Leasing Ltd, of Guildford, Surrey.
Dean said: “Due to the zoo’s lengthy closure by the council following the lynx escape, we regrettably have experienced financial difficulties. The sum of £350,000 actually includes the loan obtained to purchase the property and the money directors have used from personal funds to keep the zoo running.
“Now we are open and the summer is here, we are in a much healthier position and with careful budgeting we will come out of these difficulties.”
The animal-mad couple already had 40 pets at their previous home in Kent and were originally looking for a petting zoo before seeing the then -named Borth Animalarium was up for sale last year for £625,000 .
And after doing some research the family decided to go for it and soon owned the home of 300 animals.
Tracy said: “I qualified as a psychotherapist and we wanted a small petting farm to do animal and people therapy.
“We looked around Kent and didn’t find anything, so we took our search further across the country.
“I’ve always wanted to live in Wales, so it was perfect. I was adamant from day one. I came and visited it with a friend and then convinced my family it was a good idea.”
Tracy admitted at the time: “We didn’t have much of an idea what we were doing, but everything I don’t know I research.”