I had visited the collection twice, once in 2018 and again in 2022. In 2018, I paid £50 for a friends membership and had a tour of the place. I thought then, the enclosures were very small, with the exhibits for Jaguars, Pumas and a Snow Leopard, very small indeed, and when Raccoons had more room than a Clouded Leopard, I was left rather disappointed. I never met the owner on that occasion, but I left feeling that whilst the enclosures were small, the animals did seem well loved.
In 2022, I had the opportunity to visit again, mainly to see a Golden Cat, plus I wanted to see the Jaguarundi, as I was told they had a grey one, as well as the more common orange/red one coloured one.
On this occasion, I was left rather disillusioned and upset that the exhibits were still very small, but now offered little in the way of foliage, and enrichment and most of the cats were very pacy for food. On this occasion, the owner, was out on the main lawn, feeding Red Kites of which there were hundreds flying about and coming down for food.
There was a number of new exhibits being built, albeit small ones in the middle and I asked if this was for improvements for current animals, but was instead told, it was for new animals.
On this occasion, I met Terry, the owner, and I found him rather up himself. He was very quick to slate and slag off zoos and was in particular rude about Paradise, yet had exhibits which wouldn't be a tenth of the size of Paradises.
He did show me the Golden Cat and enabled me to get photos, but he started ranting on at me, about anti vacs, how Covid was a scam, world politics and I left wanting to get out of there very quickly.
He emailed me a few times to see if I wanted to bring a group of people there, and I did book something for last April. He then contacted me a few days before it was due to take place, saying he couldn't open for a couple of months because he was having issues due to feeding birds without Defra approval. There was no mention of anything else, and every month I would get another email pointing the finger at someone else, next was the article 10, and he was saying it was due to having Raccoons and Raccoon Dogs without approval and that, they had to be removed.
As the months went on, I suspected the day booked would never happen and even after I had then been told about his arrest, and that animals were being removed in November and December last year, he would still email me, saying the centre would be reopening soon and he would be able to arrange a day etc, although I already knew that animals had been removed and he was awaiting trial.
Then from the new year, I've had 3/4 conspiracy emails, nothing about the centre despite it meant to be newsletters on animals etc, but literally email after email blaming the government, conspiracy theories and everything. He seems to have gone bat **** crazy and the latest ranty email a few weeks ago, I decided to not even read, just moved to archive.
I am watching this case with interest, and the day one report is rather damning.
I wonder just how much of the "purchased land in Argentina" stories and conserved nature stories are actually true, Given stuff that is coming to light, and the poor care of his own cats. It is truly a sad state of affairs, and hopefully he wont be allowed anywhere near animals in future.
There used to be a pet shop on site as well, which had a strong smell and was very messy, the whole place seemed cluttered, like one of those hoarders you see on those TV programmes.
- looking back at ZTL and Facebook posts, in 2022, it was listed they held 5,6 snow leopard 1,1 Amur leopard. With numbers that large for the snowies, would be interesting to know where they ended up.