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CORNISH GUARDIAN (Cornwall, UK) 10 June 10 'Nonsense' law may force tortoise sanctuary to shut - or apply for 'zoo status'
One of Britain's most famous tortoise sanctuaries faces closure after a council enforced rules which state the reptiles must be subject to the same rules as other wild animals such as lions.
Joy Bloor, owner of Tortoise Garden in Sticker, was told that she must apply for zoo status or close after Cornwall Council reclassified the creatures as wild animals — on a par with tigers, giraffes and elephants. She has been given one month to apply for zoo status for the shelter — which she says could cost her £250,000 a year.
Mrs Bloor hit headlines last year after an opportunistic thief stole a giant tortoise called Zeus and sold it on for thousands of pounds. The tortoise, one of more than 450 at the garden, eventually turned up hundreds of miles away with a new owner.
Now Mrs Bloor who runs the garden with her husband Geoff, faces making hundreds of tortoises homeless.
She said: "The cost of running as a zoo could be in excess of £250,000 a year which for a tiny operation that runs on a shoestring like us is unachievable.
"I told the council official that tortoises were domestic pets not wild animals but she was insistent. She stated that her definition of a domestic pet is a dog, cat or similar that can be house trained. What about rats, mice, rabbits and even horses — its complete nonsense."
The rules state that the tortoise is a species not normally domesticated in Great Britain but a wild animal. But Cornwall Council went against Government guidance exempting wild species introduced to this country but now so commonly kept outside zoos as to justify regarding them as normally domesticated in the UK. They did, however, decide that guinea pigs, hamsters and chinchillas would remain exempt.
Under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 domesticated animal collections do not require the same inspections as zoos.
A council spokesman said: "Cornwall Council has no choice in its duty to apply the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 to the Tortoise Garden. If a licence application isn't submitted then the Council will have no choice other than to issue a closure notice."
'Nonsense' law may force tortoise sanctuary to shut

THE TELEGRAPH (London, UK) 10 June 10 Meddling council should leave tortoise sanctuary alone (Pete Wedderburn)
The future of a tortoise sanctuary in Cornwall is in jeopardy after being reclassified by Cornwall Council as a “zoo”, with the financial implications that accompany the stipulations laid down by the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. The costs of the reclassification will include new housing for the tortoises, regular inspections, compulsory post-mortems for all deaths and specified regulation waste management equipment. The sanctuary is appealing the decision, but if it goes ahead, it’s likely that the establishment, run as a passion on a shoestring, will be forced to close down.
Nobody’s questioning the wisdom of the zoo legislation: it’s important that exotic creatures such as gazelles, “big cats” and crocodilean-type reptiles should be kept in conditions that are appropriate for human safety and animal welfare. But should these same regulations apply to a centre that houses harmless tortoises?
Under the legal definition, it does seem as if the tortoise sanctuary could fit the description of a “zoo”, which could be defined as a collection of living animals that are not ‘normally domesticated in Britain’, on display to the public for an admission fee. The sanctuary website even carries the blurb “Get close to the exotic species from Africa”. However the sanctuary owners claim that tortoises are pets, and they have a point: what happens when “exotic species from Africa” start to be “normally domesticated in Britain”?
Common sense should be the over-riding principle here. The Tortoise Sanctuary serves a useful purpose, looking after hundreds of unwanted, abandoned, injured and illegally imported tortoises. Only last week, vets were warning about the harm caused to native wildlife by such creatures being released into the British countryside because people don’t know what else to do with them. There have been no reports of any type of problems with the sanctuary, and tortoise enthusiasts enjoy visiting the place. What function will be served by imposing stringent controls that will cause it to shut down?
Meddling council should leave tortoise sanctuary alone