Borth Wild Animal Kingdom wound up over taxman debts

A zoo whose lynx was killed after escaping in 2017 is likely to close after its owners appeared at court with debts of more than £100,000.

Borth Wild Animal Kingdom in Ceredigion was compulsorily wound up and had its assets liquidated at an Insolvency and Companies Court hearing in London.

Calls for the zoo near Aberystwyth to be shut were made four years ago as two lynx died within days of each other.

The owners of the zoo had been allowed extra time to clear their debts.

The court heard HM Revenue & Customs issued the winding up petition against the zoo over unpaid debts of £60,567 dating back from July 2017 - as well an extra £40,000 in "further amounts'.

Judge Sebastian Prentis also heard the zoo - where two African antelopes also escaped in 2020 - owed £22,000 to their local authority Ceredigion council.

HMRC's Justina Stewart told the court that zoo directors Dean Tweedy, 52, and Tracy Tweedy, 50 had offered to pay off the tax debts at £200 a month but that was "not acceptable".

"The debts are based on the company's own returns and go back to 2017," said Ms Stewart.

"The company had previously entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement in 2018 but that was terminated in 2019 for failure to make the agreed payments."

The court heard that Ceredigion council had made contingency plans for the animals' welfare if the company was wound up.

Ms Tweedy told the remote hearing that their offer was due to Covid closures as "there was no income coming in" which caused "huge financial problems for the company".

The judge said this was the seventh hearing and while the Covid pandemic had "intervened severely, the petition is based on the company's own returns and VAT returns falling due from end of July 2017".

He said there had been numerous adjournments to allow settlement and for various appeals to be heard.

In a Facebook post, the zoo announced it will be rehoming its lions permanently, which will "help ease the financial burden".

Borth Wild Animal Kingdom housed animals like lions, lynx, monkeys and pythons but rehoused its big cats last year after licence problems.

Eurasian lynx Lilleth was "humanely destroyed" after escaping from the zoo in October 2017 while a second lynx, Nilly, died at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom a few days earlier following a "handling error".

The zoo had been banned from keeping certain dangerous animals including wild cats by Ceredigion council in November 2017 - but that decision was reversed, subject to conditions, in 2018.

Borth Wild Animal Kingdom shut again in September 2020 and had to rehouse its big cats because of more licence problems.