Twycross Zoo's plea for funding

The Leicestershire attraction says they don't qualify for a recent zoo's fund announced at the weekend.

The government announced a £100 million government fund to help zoos and aquariums following the coronavirus lockdown on Saturday 27th June.

A spokesperson from Twycross Zoo says stipulations to this funding means that the UKs largest conservation zoos, including Twycross Zoo are not eligible.

Twycross Zoo CEO, Dr Sharon Redrobe OBE, said: “As a group of large charity zoos we were extremely disappointed to learn that this fund effectively excludes us and is capped at too low a level. Whilst £100 million is indeed a large total fund, we were extremely frustrated to discover that we would be legally constrained from meeting the eligibility criteria as it requires us to have too few months running costs left. Moreover the 800-thousand-euro cap is less than one month's running costs and so is woefully inadequate for our needs and places thousands of animals at risk. We urgently call on the Government to work with us on revisiting the criteria for this fund to truly help save our nation's zoos.”

Dr Redrobe had previously warned the government of a UK animal welfare crisis if sufficient funding was not made readily available to its large conservation zoos.

As a panel speaker at the recent Zoos and Aquariums All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Wednesday 24th June 2020, she said: “Failing animal welfare and the rundown of facilities, we all know is another road to closure. The loss of a large collection of endangered species unique in the UK such as Twycross Zoos’ would be devastating and when I say loss, dare I say it, potentially a mass cull as we are all in the same boat. No other zoo worldwide has the funds to create new enclosures immediately as they cost millions. We are all facing the same ending.”