Lynx on loose from zoo run by pair ‘still learning the ropes’
IT IS not every day a family decides to buy a zoo. And when Dean and Tracy Tweedy upped sticks and moved from Kent to Wales to take over the running of an animal park complete with lions, monkeys and a jaguar, they admitted, perhaps with a little understatement, that they “didn’t have much of an idea” what they were doing.
Now, just a few months after they purchased Borth Wild Animal Kingdom near Aberystwyth, one of their new charges, a Eurasian lynx, has escaped, plunging them into crisis.
The 18-month-old animal, called Lillith, has been on the loose for up to six days, prompting warnings that it could attack local livestock or pets for food and may become aggressive if cornered.
Mrs Tweedy, 46, said: “She is not dangerous unless you try to catch her. She has sharp teeth and claws. She is wild and has never had human contact. She will defend herself and lash out if frightened.”
The Tweedys, who have seven children, three of whom are adopted, had originally planned to buy a petting farm. They already had 30 pets of their own and having fostered several children, had witnessed the positive effect animals have on people.
Mrs Tweedy, a psychotherapist, was keen to incorporate more ani- mals into her work. However, from the moment the couple first saw the small Welsh zoo, set in 12 acres with 300 animals, they knew it was “perfect” and snapped it up, complete with a twobedroom bungalow, for £600,000. In April, the family moved from Milton Regis, near Sittingbourne, to Wales with their three youngest daughters, Sophie, 13, Sarah, nine, and Paige, eight, living in a caravan while the former owners gave them a crash course in zoo ownership before handing over the reins the following month. Mr Tweedy, an artist, said at the time: “Trying not to get eaten is a lot of it. We need to get to know each animal quickly. We’ve already had an injury. My daughter, Sarah, backed into a Shetland pony and was bitten on the bottom.” It’s not the first time the zoo, formerly Borth Animalarium, has been in the news. In 2010, a court ordered animal health authorities to find new homes for many animals as former owners, Alan and Jean Mumbray, did not have the correct paperwork to display them on commercial premises. Three years later, Mr Mumbray, 58, left a leopard’s cage open, causing the animal to attempt an escape just yards from visitors.
Mrs Tweedy told The Daily Telegraph: “We have spent the last five or six months improving it. A lot needs rebuilding, the enclosures are too small. We are working through a priority list but we only have a certain amount of manpower and money.” However, she insisted that, despite the setback, they had absolutely no regrets about buying the zoo, which last year attracted some 27,000 visitors.
The animal was spotted on Sunday but since then could easily have breached the perimeter fence. An armed police unit is on standby and a helicopter with thermal imaging cameras was due to undertake a search last night. Ceredigion county council said licensing officers had visited the zoo, which has temporarily closed, in an attempt to establish exactly how the lynx had escaped and to discuss measures to ensure the “serious occurrence” did not happen again.