BORTH Wild Animal Kingdom can continue to keep ‘dangerous animals’ after a deal was struck with Ceredigion County Council over licensing conditions.

The zoo owners Tracy and Dean Tweedy had been due to appear before Aberystwyth magistrates to appeal against the council’s decision to impose a licensing condition banning the zoo from keeping Category 1 animals, those which are considered dangerous such as big cats.

But that hearing has been cancelled after an agreement was reached between the council and the zoo that will see the zoo allowed to keep Category 1 animals if a “suitably qualified, competent and experienced person” is employed within the next six months.

A council spokesperson confirmed that an agreement had been reached that would allow the zoo to continue operating as it had previously.

They said: “Following a periodic inspection at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, a decision was taken by the council - based on professional veterinary advice - to offer to vary the licence condition that prohibited the zoo from keeping Category 1 classification animals.

“This proposal was agreed by the appellants, having sought advice from their own professional expert, enabling them to withdraw their appeal.

“The variation, agreed by means of a consent order, enables the operators to retain Category 1 classification animals on the understanding that they employ a suitably qualified, competent and experienced person to manage the collection within six months.”

The changes to the zoo’s licensing conditions were imposed after the escape and subsequent shooting of a lynx called Lillith in November 2017 before the death of a second lynx, named Nilly, who was strangled as a keeper tried to move her.

Read the full story in next week’s Cambrian News, on sale on Wednesday