News / bristol zoo
Legal fight continues to prevent zoo auction taking place
As an online auction is due to begin featuring more than 300 lots of memorabilia from the former Bristol Zoo in Clifton, a group of zoo shareholders are still attempting to prevent any of the items from being sold.
And if the auction cannot be stopped, the group are urging people to buy the items “with a view to one day donating them back to Bristol Zoo Gardens, once a better future has been secured for the site”.
Lawyers acting for Bristol Zoo shareholders, led by Save Bristol Zoo Gardens founder Tom Jones, have sent a second legal letter to the Bristol Zoological Society board, telling them that “any sales which are found to be in breach of the trustees’ statutory and/or fiduciary duties have the potential to give rise to claims against the trustees personally”.
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The online auction, which opens at 10am on Friday morning, includes antique signage, vintage posters, signs, souvenirs and sculptures.
Jones said: “We were disappointed but not surprised that trustees chose to ignore our concerns and go ahead with last week’s gala dinner, where several irreplaceable items from Bristol Zoo Gardens were sold to the highest bidder at an exclusive private event.
“Consequently, our lawyers have once again written to the board to very reasonably ask that all future auctions of irreplaceable Bristol Zoo assets are postponed, until the outcome of multiple legal challenges, including the forthcoming Judicial Review, are known.
“However, to cover all basses, if the auctions can’t be stopped in time, we strongly urge the public to bid on these items with a view to one day donating them back to Bristol Zoo Gardens, once a better future has been secured for the site.”
Tom Jones says it’s not unusual for the zoo’s trustees to ignore shareholders – photo: Tom Jones
Bristol Zoological Society say that defending legal challenges is diverting vital funds away from the charity’s vital conservation work.
But Jones said that “the people currently running Bristol Zoological Society appear to see the world in very black and white terms of winners and losers”.
He said: “If you oppose plans to sell Bristol Zoo then apparently, you automatically oppose the Zoo’s conservation work as well.
“However, life isn’t a zero-sum game and Bristol Zoological Society needs to start taking responsibility for the consequences of its actions, rather than blaming others when it is challenged.”
Jones added: “By choosing to auction off hundreds of historic, irreplaceable artefacts, the people currently in charge of Bristol Zoological Society are intentionally vandalising something over which they are only custodians…
“Stating that opposition to Bristol Zoological Society’s plans to turn the world’s fifth oldest zoo into luxury housing is only from ‘a small number of Clifton residents’ is highly disrespectful to the 12,000 people who have signed the petition calling for Bristol Zoo Gardens not to be sold off for luxury housing and also to the half a million visitors from all over Bristol and beyond who used to visit Bristol Zoo Gardens every year but who are no longer choosing to visit Bristol Zoo Project, formerly Wild Place Project, in South Gloucestershire.”
The ‘lion’s roar’ sign has a guide price at the auction of between £100 and £200 – photo: Martin Booth
In a previous statement following the first legal letter from shareholders, a spokesperson for Bristol Zoological Society said they “won’t give in to pressure from a small well-funded group of campaigners”.
She said: “Bristol Zoo Gardens’ history is important to all of us, which is why our plans for the old site in Clifton will see the site open to the public as a park, free to access for the first time, and the iconic zoo entrance building, turned into a new Clifton Conservation Hub.
“At the hub there will be a café, community spaces and a permanent exhibition of the zoo’s history.
“Bristol Zoological Society has kept items to display here, including the most important Alfred death mask and the original Zookeepers ‘Animal Bedtime’ Bell.
“The ongoing efforts of a small group of Clifton residents to stop a conservation and education charity from progressing with its future plans are not only wasting vital funds but they are preventing us from saving wildlife and building a new conservation zoo, which will provide bigger habitats and higher standards of animal welfare.
“Instead of investing vital charitable funds where they are needed, in saving and protecting the world’s most threatened species, we find ourselves once again being forced to spend thousands of pounds in legal fees, defending further claims.
“This is extremely frustrating for all our staff and volunteers, who work so hard.
“We want a zoo which is financially resilient, can meet the needs of animals over the long-term and prioritises conservation.
“Our decision to close Bristol Zoo Gardens and focus our efforts on Bristol Zoo Project was based on a thorough analysis and a desire to create a new type of conservation zoo.
“We do not believe the current 12-acre site in Clifton is fit for purpose as a modern, conservation zoo.
“We won’t give in to pressure from a small well-funded group of campaigners who are not zoo experts and don’t understand animal welfare.”
Main photo: Bristol Zoological Society
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