24th January 2024

Terrence Moore, founder and former operator of the Cat Survival Trust, was sentenced yesterday following his trial last year. He had been found guilty of four counts of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and seven counts of using an endangered animal species for commercial gain without a licence. During the course of the investigation, police officers found 26 cats’ carcasses in freezers, and more recently, 28 surviving animals were removed from the site. 

The sentence for causing all of this avoidable pain and suffering? Payment of £14,380 costs and fines, and a mere 5-year ban on keeping animals. Something doesn’t add up.

Yesterday, St Alban’s Crown Court concluded a years-long saga of a court case, in which the public were able to see the true cost of allowing private individuals to own exotic animals. The self-styled ‘conservationist’ Terrence Moore founded the Cat Survival Trust in 1976, with the intention of rescuing big cats from poor conditions, cruelty, and neglect. By the time officers first visited in July 2022 to investigate animal welfare offences, it had become exactly what it was supposed to provide sanctuary from. Multiple species were housed on site, including snow leopards, mountain lions, bengals, lynx, servals, European wildcats, jungle cats, and a Caracal cat. In many, untreated injuries and illnesses were observed due to Moore’s reliance on homeopathic remedies over professional veterinary care. This was deemed  to be causing unnecessary suffering to animals and Mr Moore was charged by Hertfordshire Constabulary.

The trial for these offences took place over three weeks in May 2024, almost two years after that first visit - and the entire time between being charged and going to trial, the mistreated and neglected animals remained on his property - for almost two years. In a domestic animal cruelty case, it is easy enough to seize the animals from the property, but where an individual is allowed to keep almost 30 big cats captive, where are they supposed to go when they need to be saved? 

The sentencing was carried out this week having been delayed to allow time for the complex task of rehoming the cats. Now that they have been removed, the disqualification can come into force. Many of the surviving animals have been taken by The Big Cat Sanctuary. 

But is this really a happy ending?

It doesn’t take much more than a shallow dig to discover that The Big Cat Sanctuary is not as wholesome as it may appear. Much like The Cat Survival Trust, The Big Cat Sanctuary presents itself as a conservation and rescue centre. The Cat Survival Trust was not a zoo, and held no such licence, as it was not open to the public. However, The Big Cat Sanctuary does hold a zoo licence, because it is not a sanctuary, but a zoo. Visitors can purchase the same photography experiences, and even feeding experiences. 

Visitors have the potential to cause stress to the cats involved - cats who have already had traumatic lives. Crucially, the breeding programmes that The Big Cat Sanctuary engages in contribute to the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme - one that fills zoos across Europe with animals for display, and for profit. These breeding programmes produce offspring that are used to market the zoo and draw in crowds to see the cute kittens. However, these kittens will spend their entire lives in cages, never be introduced to the wild, and have no impact on wild populations or conservation statuses. 

It is not conservation, it’s marketing.

Therefore, for the majority of the animals ‘rescued’ from The Cat Survival Trust, their exploitation grows, and the neglect of their basic needs persists. The core issue is not that a lone individual was allowed to keep wild animals, and then failed to provide for them in the long-term. The problem is that anyone, or any business, enterprise or ‘sanctuary’ is allowed to breed wild animals for a lifetime of captivity. When councils grant new zoo and dangerous wild animal licenses, they open the door to disaster. We have also seen this  in the closure of Cumbria Safari Zoo this year, where a failed zoo now must rehome exotic animals to other zoos. We have also seen it in the closed Merlin Entertainments’ Bear Grylls Adventure, which was recently discovered to have left behind multiple animals in an abandoned building. The victims of failed zoos and ‘sanctuaries’ are the animals held captive there, with nowhere to go, and nobody to help them.

A five-year ban on keeping animals is no deterrent to any budding ‘Tiger King’ who wants a backyard full of big cats. The solution is abolition - no more resources going to holding innocent animals in cages, but instead going directly to in-situ conservation, and genuine rescue and genuine accredited sanctuaries (see Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries); no new zoos.

Want to help end animal exploitation?

Join our action to object to planning permission for a new zoo in Tebay, proposed by the failed Cumbria Safari Zoo.