Leopard and Goat Farm Private Collection in Cornwall
- Thread starter Marcellus
- Start date
Hi all, new here. Fell down a rabbit hole after finding a beautiful property for sale and doing some research on it.... only to discover it intertwines with another of my interests. The house for sale is Great Trevarran, home of the Leopard + Goat Farm. Has there been any public comment about Todd selling the farm and relocating? They seem to have done a lot of work there over the last few years which wouldn't indicate an intention to move. Money issues? What will happen to all the animals if it sells?
Is it possible this move is because of some nosy ZooChatters, as discussed earlier in the thread?
Perhaps, although personally I don’t think it would be fiscally sensible to move your entire home, collection and business because a couple of people on the internet said they tried to take a peek from a passing train?
We humans are curious and nosy creatures by nature. I struggle slightly with the idea we are to just admire the (public) instagram photos and be encouraged to donate money but not ask questions.
We humans are curious and nosy creatures by nature. I struggle slightly with the idea we are to just admire the (public) instagram photos and be encouraged to donate money but not ask questions.
I met Todd at Rare Species Conservation Centre (before they opened for the final season) and he was very gratious and gave me a splendid tour. It just seemed odd to me that he would invest so much in establishing RSCC and then close it. Even more odd to try to reopen a similar setup at Leopard + Goat Farm and now that is closing too. As far as wanting privacy, I understand that but at the same time he set up a public website and Facebook and Instagram account for LGF, so you can't do that if you don't want people to know about you. I am sure money is an issue, but surely he did not expect people to donate to a facility they cannot visit? It is too bad and I wish him all the best (truly, I do). When RSCC closed some of the animals were sent to public facilities and I wonder if the same will happen here. Of course the question that myself and several other ZooChatters have is what will happen to the marbled cats?
Todd is a good friend of mine and I was down there only recently. A public forum is not really the right place for discussions about a private collection unless the owner wishes to get involved,but i will say that,unfortunately, the Marbled Cats have died. One of them died of cancer.
That's a real pity.
I’m genuinely sad that the house & outbuildings are on the market. Of course, none of us know on here what the reasons are or if part of the collection will stay on site (I.e. splitting the site?). Either way, after checking instagram and their website weekly for a number of years (always hoping to book onto a tour), and purchasing chocolate from their shop, I somehow in part, feel invested! I do hope Todd’s project succeeds, whether in the SW or elsewhere!
Cheekily - I know a zoo in Torbay that needs re-stocking!!
Too bad, but I do appreciate the update.
Todd Dalton
Member
Hello All,
I occasionally read your postings here but not often as in general we are too busy caring for our animals or running our business, however I often find various postings about my collection, me and our animals offensive and without thought. If you guys and gals are interested in a collection then I would suggest that you ask positive questions with keen interest focussed on fact not fiction.
I understand that we have an interesting collection and many of you are excited about some of the species we care for. However gossip about my home being for sale or why we may or may not be relocating is frankly private and of no one else's concern and does not relate to this forums purpose (we are after all a private collection not a Zoo). Likewise I think most of you would like to keep certain matters in your life, private too. It is rather bizarre to me that people comment about other peoples finances, lives and motives when they do not know anything about a person or facility. It is certainly not a positive thing. For all you people know I or my partner could be dying of a terminal illness so give these things a thought in future. If the last 2 years are anything to go by you will all know that many of us have been hit hard by this unforeseen pandemic and it has created havoc for many including us. If we were fundraising, we have been fundraising to assist a collection that needed help when there was not help out there for non public zoological collections. (We also run a business and need an income to do what we do and care for our animals) the fact they are not on view to the public does not mean we should not ask for or receive any help when forces out of our control are damaging our lives. In the U.K. our culture these days is rife with Jealousy and Judgement focussed on others and it is a really a sad state of affairs. We all have difficulty in life and we should all support each other and not be so judgemental.
Our Project is involved in and also instigated various important breeding programs (some of which EAZA has now turned into EEP Programs which we get no credit for! We have found the Mainstream Zoo Community to happily take credit for the work we put in) such as Smooth Coated Otter, Balabac Chevrotain, Bearded Saki, Eastern Aardwolf, Ring Tailed Vontsira, Grandidier's Vontsira, Fanaloka, Palawan Binturong etc which I tirelessly worked hard to create and invest in, and as you can see we like to focus on many species other collections often overlook as they are not charismatic for the public. We also worked hard to get Zoos in the U.K. to house Sun Bear and now thanks to my efforts Chester, Colchester and Edinburgh all house Sun Bear, and are raising awareness about the species that we as a small facility could never achieve, which is great for the species - especially one that is in such trouble and also suffering greatly in Asia. Malagasy Carnivores (Little Brown or Sometimes Red Jobs) floated around in European Zoos but all came from a single pair brought in decades ago and heavily inbred, no one was bothered enough about them to do anything other than talk about it but not act, yet we got up, got to work and reinvigorated Euplerids in Europe and our new bloodlines for Ring Tailed Vontsira have now started to give the breeding program a future with some diversity.
Sadly I tried to keep Rare Species Conservation Centre afloat for more than 12 years, and after tirelessly improving the place, sinking all of our money into the place, it was clear that it would never be able to stay financially afloat in a sustainable way. I grew up loving Zoos and Animals and when I was a kid you did not have Zoos full or playgrounds, amusements and junk food. We refused to have a playground at RSCC (we felt the noise and disturbance would disturb our animals) or sell items that were not very ethical or pertaining to coming to learn about Rare Animals, their habitats or Countries of origin. We felt that you went to a Zoo to learn about animals and to admire them and their beauty, but sadly these days Zoos in the UK particularly, seem to be more of an attraction than a Zoo and the focus has moved away from Animals and more to the $ coming into the gate and how to maximise that. So I had to take the sensible decision to close. We kept some of our animals to continue with our passion and we have since added to this. Wingham Wildlife Park bought our old site and also could not get it to wash its face even in a more commercial manner.
So also closed it after a few years.
We use Instagram to post nice photos of Animals, Food and other things of interest pertaining to our life. It is contrary to some of your beliefs us being public as many of you Im sure have instagram accounts.
As you can imagine we were contacted by the team who made Ross Kemps TV program "Britains Tiger Kings" and we had no interest whatsoever in placing what we do on TV for self promotion.
So refused to take part in it. Nothing positive came of that programme apart from creating more negativity and hysteria about animal keeping privately, some private keepers have very high standards of care and welfare and dedicate their lives to their animals - however sadly some use animals as a tool for self promotion and ego.
So let's focus on Animals here shall we and try to garner knowledge about the work we all do.
Best Wishes
Todd
I occasionally read your postings here but not often as in general we are too busy caring for our animals or running our business, however I often find various postings about my collection, me and our animals offensive and without thought. If you guys and gals are interested in a collection then I would suggest that you ask positive questions with keen interest focussed on fact not fiction.
I understand that we have an interesting collection and many of you are excited about some of the species we care for. However gossip about my home being for sale or why we may or may not be relocating is frankly private and of no one else's concern and does not relate to this forums purpose (we are after all a private collection not a Zoo). Likewise I think most of you would like to keep certain matters in your life, private too. It is rather bizarre to me that people comment about other peoples finances, lives and motives when they do not know anything about a person or facility. It is certainly not a positive thing. For all you people know I or my partner could be dying of a terminal illness so give these things a thought in future. If the last 2 years are anything to go by you will all know that many of us have been hit hard by this unforeseen pandemic and it has created havoc for many including us. If we were fundraising, we have been fundraising to assist a collection that needed help when there was not help out there for non public zoological collections. (We also run a business and need an income to do what we do and care for our animals) the fact they are not on view to the public does not mean we should not ask for or receive any help when forces out of our control are damaging our lives. In the U.K. our culture these days is rife with Jealousy and Judgement focussed on others and it is a really a sad state of affairs. We all have difficulty in life and we should all support each other and not be so judgemental.
Our Project is involved in and also instigated various important breeding programs (some of which EAZA has now turned into EEP Programs which we get no credit for! We have found the Mainstream Zoo Community to happily take credit for the work we put in) such as Smooth Coated Otter, Balabac Chevrotain, Bearded Saki, Eastern Aardwolf, Ring Tailed Vontsira, Grandidier's Vontsira, Fanaloka, Palawan Binturong etc which I tirelessly worked hard to create and invest in, and as you can see we like to focus on many species other collections often overlook as they are not charismatic for the public. We also worked hard to get Zoos in the U.K. to house Sun Bear and now thanks to my efforts Chester, Colchester and Edinburgh all house Sun Bear, and are raising awareness about the species that we as a small facility could never achieve, which is great for the species - especially one that is in such trouble and also suffering greatly in Asia. Malagasy Carnivores (Little Brown or Sometimes Red Jobs) floated around in European Zoos but all came from a single pair brought in decades ago and heavily inbred, no one was bothered enough about them to do anything other than talk about it but not act, yet we got up, got to work and reinvigorated Euplerids in Europe and our new bloodlines for Ring Tailed Vontsira have now started to give the breeding program a future with some diversity.
Sadly I tried to keep Rare Species Conservation Centre afloat for more than 12 years, and after tirelessly improving the place, sinking all of our money into the place, it was clear that it would never be able to stay financially afloat in a sustainable way. I grew up loving Zoos and Animals and when I was a kid you did not have Zoos full or playgrounds, amusements and junk food. We refused to have a playground at RSCC (we felt the noise and disturbance would disturb our animals) or sell items that were not very ethical or pertaining to coming to learn about Rare Animals, their habitats or Countries of origin. We felt that you went to a Zoo to learn about animals and to admire them and their beauty, but sadly these days Zoos in the UK particularly, seem to be more of an attraction than a Zoo and the focus has moved away from Animals and more to the $ coming into the gate and how to maximise that. So I had to take the sensible decision to close. We kept some of our animals to continue with our passion and we have since added to this. Wingham Wildlife Park bought our old site and also could not get it to wash its face even in a more commercial manner.
So also closed it after a few years.
We use Instagram to post nice photos of Animals, Food and other things of interest pertaining to our life. It is contrary to some of your beliefs us being public as many of you Im sure have instagram accounts.
As you can imagine we were contacted by the team who made Ross Kemps TV program "Britains Tiger Kings" and we had no interest whatsoever in placing what we do on TV for self promotion.
So refused to take part in it. Nothing positive came of that programme apart from creating more negativity and hysteria about animal keeping privately, some private keepers have very high standards of care and welfare and dedicate their lives to their animals - however sadly some use animals as a tool for self promotion and ego.
So let's focus on Animals here shall we and try to garner knowledge about the work we all do.
Best Wishes
Todd
Thanks Todd. I really appreciate your detailed & informative reply. I hope you & your collection are good and wish you the best for the future. Would you still like to offer private tours and outdoor eating experiences to raise funds and share your conservation message, or is this a no-go after the pandemic? I ask, as I still check your ‘coming soon’ website page on a regular basis. Take care & cheers again.
Well said. Life is hard enough for private collections (I keep a few birds) without needless speculation and gossip. Anything you feel able to contribute to Zoochat will I’m sure be appreciated.
Thank you very much for your wise words and the work you have done sofar for the species you are/were working with !
Hope you can find good homes for the animals for which you don't can care anymore ( but I'm sure you will take the effort in doing so ! ) and also hope the animals you will keep will thank you it by giving birth to loads of offsprings !
Wish you all the luck in the world and it would be great if you can inform us about future developments - as you know a good number of ZooChatters will appreciate this and it also will take away any speculations.
Todd Dalton
Member
Hello we are not sure at present on our plans for 2022 but if we do do some open days/tours etc they would be posted on our instagram for sure. Thanks for your interest cheers
Todd Dalton
Member
Thank You for your appreciation, often work that smaller non EAZA Zoos goes unoticed and many of the larger Zoos swoop in like Vultures and take credit for what is actually carried out by the small fry... I will of course when I have time reply to questions about species we keep etc.
Todd Dalton
Member
Thanks, it really is becoming difficult keeping animals and many do not understand our passion or indeed passion for zoos, lets hope we do not become things of the past. Good Luck with your bird collection.
Welcome to Zoochat, and thanks for your detailed and frank first post putting various things straight
as noted already by @FBBird anything you are able and willing to contribute to the site will be more than welcome - and I say this not merely as a moderator of the forum, but also as someone who rather notoriously has a strong soft spot for obscure small mammals of the sort you have championed over the years, and wishes more was done to raise their profile.