Activists hit out as Glasgow Zoo wins a reprieve

Published on Thursday 31 October 2002 00:00

ANIMAL rights groups yesterday attacked the decision not to close the beleaguered Glasgow Zoo despite worldwide calls for its licence to be revoked.

The zoo won a three-month reprieve to improve after a damning report identified a list of failings. The move has incensed welfare groups, which claim the animals are being kept in "substandard, squalid conditions".

Yvonne Taylor, of Advocates for Animals, said: "This is just another delay. The zoo just keeps getting let off the hook every single time.

"It is the animals who are paying the price. It’s coming up to the winter and the animals are going to be left to languish in substandard, squalid enclosures."

Last month, zoo managers were ordered by Glasgow City Council inspectors to carry out a string of repairs within 12 months. Since then, licensing officials have received more than 2,000 letters and postcards from around the world demanding that Glasgow Zoo be closed.

Yesterday, the zoo was called to report to licensing officials on the state of repair work and provide councillors with copies of accounts.

Despite failing to make the reports available, councillors agreed to give the park an extra three months to produce detailed plans for the future.

Ms Taylor added: "They were supposed to turn up with financial statements, accounts and plans for future, but they have turned up without them again and they’re breaking the law. The council are out of touch. "

The zoo is struggling to pay debts totalling an estimated 3 million. It is relying on the sale of 26 acres of land for housing to clear its financial backlog, but planning application is unlikely to be approved until next year.

Roger Edwards, the chief executive of the zoo, said: "The major problem to do with time scales is our continued uncertainty about when the planning permission will be granted for the north of the zoo.

"It is extremely difficult to give dates about when the improvements will be made until we are sure about the planning permission."

Last month, the zoo was reported to Scottish Charities Office after complaints that its accounts had not been published since 1998.

Under laws set by the Lord Advocate, all registered charities are required to produce copies of their accounts every year.

A spokesman for Glasgow Zoo said: "Glasgow Zoological Society accepts that the zoo is in need of investment and renewal and is committed to achieving this and providing Glasgow with a professionally-managed, education-based visitor attraction with animals. The society has been, and always will be, committed first and foremost to the welfare of animals.

"We believe we can create such an attraction while fulfilling on this commitment," he added.

Glasgow Zoo was once one of the most popular tourist attractions in Scotland, and it recorded 150,000 visitors in 1991.

But two years ago, it lost 126,000 of funding from Glasgow City Council and by last year, visitor numbers to the park had plunged to 60,000.