**UPDATE: The council meeting on Monday 22nd July went ahead, and as we understand it currently, the committee motioned to make amendments to the licence, rather than revoke it. We are therefore continuing to call on Westmorland and Furness Council to take appropriate action considering the evidence of ongoing neglect at Cumbria Safari Zoo. We demand the licence be revoked, and the animals rehomed to suitable and accredited sanctuaries.

Please sign our petition and share our undercover investigation videos widely. We provide further updates on the details of the meeting in due course.**

This Monday, the Westmorland and Furness Sub-Regulatory Committee will be discussing Cumbria Safari Zoo’s recent inspections, and whether to add any licence conditions to their current zoo licence. 

Freedom for Animals carried out an undercover investigation into Cumbria Safari Zoo between May 2023-Feb 2024. We found shocking failings throughout the investigation, which led us to create a detailed report which we then sent to Westmorland and Furness Council, alongside the release of undercover video footage to the public. Once we released the footage, and it was subsequently shared in the press, the zoo's only response was to claim the issues were all prior to their “change in management” in 2017, yet these were failings that occurred in 2023-2024.

Like the sad drowning of a baby kangaroo, who left the safety of their mother's pouch, and fell into an unfenced pond in their enclosure. Unable to escape the deep water, they died. This preventable tragedy occurred in December 2023. 

These are not historical issues. They happened under the watch of the current Cumbria Zoo Company LTD, and they continue to happen to this day. 

To date, we have not yet received a detailed response from the council regarding our investigative report - sent to the licencing department in March 2024 - and, therefore, we continue to lack clarity on how seriously the welfare of the animals held captive at the zoo is being considered.

In the upcoming sub-regulatory committee meeting, the council will be discussing the most recent inspections carried out under licence by the council and DEFRA, which have detailed issues such as: 

• A work experience student found to be working unsupervised with zebras and wildebeests.
• A rhino - Huubka - showing stereotypic behaviours (pacing) while locked in her pen. 
• The giraffe enclosure padlock left unlocked.
• No evident food or water in the uncleaned rhino pen, whilst the rhino were still locked in. 
• Animals classified as category one, posing serious injury or life-threatening risks to human safety.
• Firearms cover concerns; with only one trained staff member present at times, with questionable competence.
• Evidence of staff members struggling to find the correct key and appropriate firearm.
• Poor animal welfare:
  • Lack of straw and an overflowing muck heap observed.
  • Notable increase in rodent "issues".
  • Social animals being held as solitary individuals - including a meerkat, sloth, nyala, wildebeest and giraffe.
  • Poor general animal keeping practices (including mouldy faeces build up in enclosures, visible hazards in enclosures which could cause animal injury and insufficiently heated environments). 

The inspectors noted these failings as “unacceptable” and requiring “urgent resolution”. Since then however, further inspections claimed there were ongoing concerns and issues still left needing to be addressed. The documents can be read in more detail here. 

Of course, it is completely unacceptable that these issues are occuring in the first place, especially after so many years of already failing to adhere to their licencing conditions, and breaching animal welfare requirements. When will the ever mounting evidence of animal neglect or poor practice at this zoo finally be enough to close it down?     

Westmorland and Furness Council are set to review the inspection findings this Monday, the 22nd July, and to discuss any possible amendments to the zoo's licence. 

We will be outside the council offices on that date, to call on the council to take the only appropriate action we deem acceptable - to close down the zoo and rehome the animals to safe and accredited sanctuaries.

You can help by:

Signing the petition

Sharing the Cumbria Safari Zoo investigation videos from our Youtube

Donating to help fund our vital campaign work against this zoo