Wow, that's a lot of fluff for one article.
Firstly, I'm struggling to imagine "UK councils or members of the public" needing to find a home for a pair of Tigers. Though I suppose, technically, animal dealers or zoos are members of the public.
Secondly, as TLD points out, these are "zoo mix" and not Bengal Tigers as claimed;
Finally, any responsible animal sanctuary" wouldn't let hybrid Tigers breed.
Let's face it, the whole situation is about getting visitors (and their pounds sterling) through the door. Nothing wrong with that*, but I just like a little less "spin" with my facts.
*For the record I have previously visited the place and it was nice enough and I can see that getting a few "ABC's" in will separate it from and place it above other wildlife attractions in the area. I just hope it develops well and doesn't become like a US "road-side" zoo.
I attended the Parrot Zoo on Thursday and happened to get talking to the owner. He told me that the council had approached him to see if he was prepared to consider taking on a male and female tiger that they needed to re-home. He made a reasonable sized holding enclosure just large enough to hold 2 adult tigers until he could get permission and build much larger enclosures. The female tiger totally unexpectedly gave birth to 3 cubs,they did not breed from them. They were conceived before they were re-homed at the parrot zoo. They then had to quickly sort out a holding area for the adult male,for obvious reasons,and then re-work the enclosure to make it more suitable for the young cubs.
The owner seemed a really nice and genuine guy,who has now signed over the whole place into a charity so he makes no profit from more visitors.Everything that comes in from visitors and experience payments goes towards the upkeep of the centre,which is all about rescuing and rehoming parrots mainly,but I also saw coatis that had health issues from previous owners.
Since the tigers were rehomed here,they have been approached by numerous councils about rehoming numerous big cats and even tapirs. They have since gained permission to build multiple big cat enclosures on a 2.5 acre extension,so expect this place to grow considerably in the coming months/years.
It might not go down too well with the purist zoo's etc,but the animals are already out there in private collections,which the councils obviously have issues with so need to be re-homed somewhere. And the parrot zoo looks like a pretty good place to me. ( There will be a load of photos from my trip going onto the gallery as soon as the moderators create a zoo in the listings.)
Yes zooman64,they do indeed have some lovely big aviaries housing large amounts of parrots,maccaws and cockatoo's etc. I was slightly worried after I looked at some reviews on trip advisor before I attended. I was pleasantly surprised on the very small percentage of birds that had large amounts of de-feathering issues etc. I saw lots of space for the birds to fly,preen and interact with each other. I was there for 4 hours and never once saw any aggression between any of the birds. There was lots of fresh fruit and nuts/seeds readily available in all the enclosures,and also numerous interactive toys like you would find in a bird cage in a private home. I asked the owner about wether they ever rehome them,and he said that they only ever rehome them after consulting with the previous owners,and always almost straight after receiving them so they haven't had chance to go into the big aviaries and lost their pet like state.
I think you would love it Parrotsandrew,there are more parrots than you can shake a messy stick at. And the walk-through aviary is great. Get there early though so the birds are still hungry and not full of visitors oferings.
ISOE2012,yes I would think it is the place. But would think that would end soon as they are getting a fair size and nearly weaned.
