The Zoo des 3 Vallées, in the Tarn, will not reopen for the Easter holidays.
The prefecture has indeed decided to extend the closure order of the animal park taken on December 22, three days after the escape of nine wolves, four of which had to be killed. This decision is accompanied by a formal notice sent the owner to part with his two packs of wolves.
Because a new inspection, with specialists in the species, took place on the site on March 23.
And the visitors made a severe report.
“It reports major and inadmissible disorders relating to the conditions of accommodation and care given to wolves but also major defects with regard to the imperative objective of public safety”, indicates, in a press release, the prefect of Tarn. “Determined to guarantee the full safety of animals and local residents”.
Second round
A deadline until April 25 has been granted to the zoo and if its answers are not deemed satisfactory, it will have to "transfer [the] two packs to other establishments, in order to guarantee their well-being".
Contacted by AFP, Sauveur Ferrara, the owner of the park, did not wish to react to this formal notice "before the expiry of the deadline".
This is not the first showdown between the authorities and the zoo.
The latter had already been closed in October 2020 by decision of the Minister of Ecology Barbara Pompili.
But the administrative court of Toulouse had ruled in favor of the park which hosts some 600 animals of 70 species.
Planet
Tarn: A zoo closed after the escape of a pack of wolves
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