"
Major and inadmissible disorders
", public safety at stake: the Tarn prefecture announced on Thursday that it would maintain the closure of an animal park from which nine wolves had escaped in December, initiating an evacuation procedure for two packs towards other establishments.
“
This decision is based on a particularly edifying report on the situation of these animals
”, indicated in a press release the prefecture which, since December 22, 2021, has suspended the opening to the public of the Trois Vallées zoo in Montredon-Labessonnié.
Of the nine wolves that had escaped from their enclosure, four had to be put down.
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On March 23, a commission of specialists mandated by the prefect of the Tarn went on site.
Its report mentions “
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
”, underlines the prefecture.
"
As a result, the prefect decided to maintain the closure of the animal park to the public and at the same time to launch a contradictory procedure prior to the formal notice to the owner to transfer these two packs of wolves to other establishments
", continues the press release.
"
Serious harm
"
The manager of the zoo was invited to produce elements of response by April 19, then an additional period of seven days was granted, according to the prefecture.
Asked by AFP, the owner of the park, Sauveur Ferrara, did not wish to react "
before the expiry of the period
" granted by the prefecture to provide answers.
This animal park, which hosts some 600 animals of 70 species on 60 hectares, including big cats, had already been subject to an administrative closure measure on October 22, 2020, by ministerial order, due to "
major shortcomings
" putting in endanger the safety of animals, staff and visitors.
But the prefect's decree had been suspended on the following November 2 by the administrative court of Toulouse, "
due to the serious and manifestly illegal attack on the right to property, freedom of enterprise and freedom of trade and industry
", for lack of prior notice, according to a press release from the TA.
The owner then denounced a “
relentlessness
” of the authorities against him.
