Did zoo feed pets to snakes?

Published on Sunday 9 June 2002 01:00

A FORMER animal keeper has alleged that Glasgow Zoo agreed to take care of children’s unwanted pets only to feed them to its snakes.

Andrew Condie, a full-time volunteer at the zoo for two years, said youngsters believed their pets would be looked after at the children’s farm on the site.

But the animals were used to feed the zoo’s reptiles to save money, Condie claims.

Condie’s allegations are made in a dossier that he has now passed on to animal welfare groups. Advocates for Animals yesterday called for an investigation. "People who have brought pets to Glasgow Zoo will be shocked by what is emerging from former employees," said director Les Ward.

Condie, from Hamilton, Lanarkshire, said during his time at the zoo, two Burmese pythons were kept in the zoo’s education room and fed on rabbits. "But the rabbits were former pets that had been entrusted to the zoo ," he said.

"Instead, they were killed and used as snake food, as were gerbils, rats and other animals."

Condie’s claims have been corroborated by another former volunteer worker who claimed if the rabbits weren’t fed to the snakes, they were given to the black leopards the zoo had at the time.

"Rats were also killed to feed the snakes," she said. "They were held up by the tail and then had their heads dashed against a wall to kill them."

The dossier also contains other disturbing allegations linked to a lack of resources. In one case, a lioness became pregnant to her brother because management could not afford contraceptives.

Staff were put at risk when inexperienced volunteer workers were told to handle lethal Gabon vipers with litter pickers despite the zoo having no anti-venom serum.