NEWS - TORTOISE SANCTUARY RECLASSIFIED AS A ZOO BY HEALTH & SAFTY OFFICIALS - FACES CLOSURE AFTER IT CANT PAY FOR LICENCE

Tortoise sanctuary reclassified as a zoo by health and safety officials faces closure after it can't shell out for expensive licence

*The tortoises were officially recognised as 'wild animals'  

*Zoo' requires a £290 a year licence 

*Needs to pay thousands of pounds in modifications, upgrades, bi-annual Defra visits

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 4:14 PM on 27th July 2011

Britain's only dedicated tortoise sanctuary has been served with a 35 day closure notice - after council officials reclassified it as a zoo.
The Tortoise Garden in the rural village of Sticker, Cornwall caters for around 400 unwanted, abandoned or poorly tortoises, many of which would die without help.
They are cared for by owner Joy Bloor, 68, who set up the facility in her back garden around 12 years ago.

Last year she was informed the sanctuary was being classified as a zoo after the animals were officially recognised as 'wild animals', which, under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981, requires a £290 a year licence.
There is also a strict set of criteria to which Joy must adhere, which she says will cost thousands of pounds in modifications and upgrades, as well as shelling out for bi-annual Defra visits.


She looks after 15 different species of tortoise at the family-run business, many of which are elderly pets that have outlived their owners or whose owners feel they cannot care for them properly.
Joy, who runs the business entirely on donations with Geoff Lean and son Terry, said: 'It is not the cost of the zoo licence which is the problem.

Wild animals: Health and safety officials have demanded Joy turn the sanctuary into a zoo

'We have already had a zoo inspector in who says we need a food preparation area with two sinks in and a separate water supply.
'The costs would be ridiculous. If you are classified as a zoo you also have to have an inspection twice a year by a Defra appointed vet.
'You have to pay all their expenses and costs and that itself can cost over £1000 per time.'
Former cardiography technician Joy set up the sanctuary 12 years ago after stepping in to house unwanted pets, before she started receiving more and more tortoises. 
Last year she was told she would need a licence to run the sanctuary and closed to the public for the winter from September to April. 
She claims that during this time she dealt with government-run agency Defra, who are not backing the councils ruling.
But she re-opened in April and on July 22 received a letter from a health and safety officer at Cornwall Council telling her she has 35 days to obtain a zoo licence or shut down for good.
Joy estimates that she has 12,000 visitors a year mostly made up of tourists visiting the area, and they allow the sanctuary to be self-sufficient.
She said: 'The letter I was sent is ridiculous and it is the work of a bureaucratic pig-headed council.
'Every single tortoise here was, at some point, someone's domestic pet, and probably for a long, long time.
'So how can you reclassify them as a wild animal if they have never lived in the wild? 'We are not a zoo, and if we are forced to be classified as one we will have to close and therefore we won't receive any funding.' Joy even stepped in when Newquay Zoo wanted to get rid of their Russian tortoises to make way for more exotic breeds.  The sanctuary currently looks after some unusual species including one 107-year-old African spurred tortoise and eleven sulcata tortoises which each weigh a massive seven stone.
Joy added: 'I will probably end up in prison because there is no way I'm closing the sanctuary.
'If the sanctuary is closed I won't be able to afford to feed them and then I don't know what will happen. It's too sad to think about.' A spokesman for Cornwall Council said: 'After an exhaustive process, it has been independently established that the Tortoise Garden meets the definition of a zoo.
'As the premises has reopened to the public and is operating without a zoo licence, the council has written to the proprietor to give 35 days' notice of a zoo closure notice being served.
'If the proprietor chooses not to apply for a zoo licence once the closure notice has been served she will have 28 days to appeal to magistrates court before it comes into force.'