A POWERFUL leopard paces manically up and down, monkeys cling to heaters for warmth and majestic giraffes tear at strips of leafless branches.
Welcome to the zoo once dubbed Britain’s worst where almost 500 animals died in three years and a keeper was mauled to death by a tiger.
This week we revealed Safari Zoo Cumbria is set to finally close its doors after a string of scandals and damning report report by the Born Free Foundation, which claimed it failed to meet “even basic standards of animal welfare”.
The charity also raised the alarm over visitor safety at the zoo, where you can pay £65 to ‘hand feed tigers’ – despite the death of a keeper in 2013.
The beleaguered zoo has been beset by trouble in and outside its gates – including escaped animals, a bitter love triangle and a furore over a Puruvean beauty queen.
The zoo insisted it had made improvements and disputes the Born Free Foundation’s conclusions.
But bosses have now announced it will close at the end of the year – although they have not revealed what will happen to the animals including rhinos, giraffes and lions.
The Sun visited the crisis-hit park back in 2022 to find out what the conditions are like – amid fierce debate about the existence of zoos.
We paid £19.99 for access to the 51 acre site, but with just 48 motors in the huge car park it was easy to see why the attraction is offering entry for as little as £8.95 on discount site Groupon.
Running a park this size costs upwards of £13,000 a day so it can’t afford to put off visitors.
Born Free’s biggest concern was over the treatment of animals in the Africa House, where a giraffe had “extremely overgrown and curved hooves” and “just a few branches” were put out for feeding.
The report stated that the lack of fresh leaves “appeared to increase the likelihood of giraffes taking food from visitors”.
It read: “During one visitor experience session at least 52 guests fed a handful of carrots to two male giraffes.”
The charity also claimed rhinos and zebras were kept in cramped conditions inside animal houses and didn’t get out enough because they couldn’t share a paddock.
“In some cases they are confined to tiny stalls which just allow them to turn around,” stated the dossier.
It included a picture of an Andean bear showing signs of “zoochosis” – repeatedly testing an electric fence with its paw and swaying until food arrived.
We arrived at the zoo in Dalton, Cumbria, on a windswept afternoon.
Our first stop was the giraffe enclosure where two lofty creatures were indeed stripping bare leaves from large branches hanging from a hoist.
Three hours later not a single leaf was left – but there was no sign of a replacement.
In a next-door field a solo rhino roamed forlornly despite the zoo owning eight – and there wasn’t a zebra in sight.
In the primate house, squirrel monkeys clung to each other near a heating lamp, while in a nearby shed a sloth crowded out a tortoise trying to get under another UV lamp.
A solo rhino roamed forlornly despite the zoo owning eight – and there wasn’t a zebra in sight
Born Free found the same thing, and said the instances could point to “sub-standard” heat provision.
But then a 10C autumn day in Cumbria is no match for 33C in the Amazon rainforest.
The Andulsian bears were also snuggled up inside but looked bored as they pawed at straw to make beds, ignoring climbing ropes.
I’m no expert in animal behaviour but I was pretty upset to see a powerful jaguar pacing three yards back and forward over and over again.
A keeper later told me it was waiting for food but admitted they kept an eye on its pacing “because once it starts it’s hard to get him out of it”.
But the most unnerving thing was how close I was to electric fencing at big cat enclosures – within touching distance, another point highlighted in the report.
It was scary knowing that the zoo has previously been fined for health and safety breaches following the death of keeper Sarah McClay, 23, of Glasgow. She was mauled by a Sumatran tiger that got through an unlocked gate.
Four years later a local council report revealed 486 animals had died at the zoo between 2013 and 2016, including a tortoise electrocuted on fencing, a squirrel found dead behind a radiator and two snow leopards who were found partially eaten.
The Captive Animal Protection Society called the park one of the worst zoos it had ever seen following escapes of a rhino and two monkeys.
But there has also been drama outside the gates.
Stetson-wearing local millionaire David Gill, the zoo’s previous owner, twice hit the headlines over his love life.
He left his wife for a 16-year-old zoo hand three years after opening the park in 1994.
Seven years later he was stabbed in the neck by jilted husband Richard Creary, who found the zoo owner in bed with his wife Alison.
Gill then allowed his third wife, one-time Miss Peru finalist Frieda Rivera-Schreiber, a job treating the zoo animals – even though she had no UK qualifications.
By 2017, visitors had dried up and Gill lost his licence to run the park.
He now goes by the surname of Rivera and is believed to own a holiday property in the Lake District.
The park was taken over by the Cumbria Zoo Company Ltd after its director Karen Brewer fought to save the venue – but she faced tough opposition after working for Gill for years.
The new operators said they “100 per cent refute” the Born Free report.
There’s no doubt staff are dedicated and passionate, keen to share their knowledge with visitors.
To the inexperienced eye, most animals appear reasonably content.
The monkeys chatter wildly, playing on outside ropes; a curious raccoon sniffs at people passing by; the penguins wade happily into water and lemurs call to each other as they swing in the treetops.
It’s an intimate safari park where visitors can pay to feed animals – including big cats, wild wolves and giant otters – through fencing, using metal tongs.
The zoo insists it is a “very different place” since Gill’s departure.
Spokeswoman Samantha Brewer – no relation to Karen – said recent inspections had been positive about progress.
She said: “When we took over, 90 per cent of buildings had no safety certification, and almost every house was not fit for the animals housed within – with no little or no suitable heating, no ventilation, no UV, and diets were inadequate and debilitating.
“We have completely turned this around.”
Samantha said the heating in primate and sloth areas was in-line with guidelines and that giraffe diets took visitor feeding into account.
It’s clear things have changed, but the issues open up a bigger question about whether zoos should exist at all.
Those against say it’s cruel to keep animals locked up and conservation should take place in the wild.
Advocates say zoos educate and save animals from extinction.
Andy Hall, a spokesman for the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said: “We face a stark extinction crisis and our members are not just conserving species abroad but at home.
“The majority of conservationists are in favour of good zoos. Nobody is in favour of bad zoos and our outstanding education projects are really, really important.
“Animal care is underpinned by scientific and expert evidence so that species can be kept well and, to the best of our knowledge, happy.”
But charities such as Born Free Foundation and Freedom for Animals claim zoos exaggerate claims of conservation and educational work.
Will zoos still exist in the future? The jury is out.
