THE former owner of a Borth zoo has hit back at claims that the attraction had been run down before she sold it and has spoken of her devastation at the death of two lynx.

Jean Mumbray owned the Animalarium, now known as Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, for 17 years before selling the attraction to Tracy and Dean Tweedy earlier this year after deciding to retire.

Mrs Mumbray said she had been left devastated by the shooting of Lillith who had escaped more than two weeks earlier and by the death of Nilly who died from asphyxiation while being moved to a new enclosure.

Hitting back at criticism levelled at the previous owners, Mrs Mumbray said the new owners, Dean and Tracy Tweedy from Kent, should have noticed immediately that Lillith had escaped and said that she had hand-reared Nilly since she was a cub, with Nilly spending the first two years of her life living in the family home.

On the shooting of Lillith, Mrs Mumbray said: “When the lynx escaped it should have been noticed immediately. We always counted them at feed times.

“The normal behaviour of an escaped zoo animal is to try to return after a short time.

“I would have shut the rest of the lynx in one section of the enclosure and opened the doors of the enclosure, the safety porch, the safety barrier and the main doors of the zoo which faced the hill where she was hiding.

“She remained on that hill for more than a week and was heard calling at night. However, she was chased and harassed at night, with torches until eventually she left the zoo confines.

“I don’t understand the motivation for the night-time chases or the cameras.

“While the lynx was on zoo property she could have been darted.

“I was never asked for my opinion or for advice. There are zoos in the area that would have responded to a request and brought an anaesthetic dart gun. The licence and training for these are more rigorous than for a firearm.”

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