Mole Hall Wildlife Park closes » Mole Hall Wildlife Park

06-10-2008

OAP chimps need your help | The Sun |News

06-10-2008

Hahaha, I love the ignorant comment at the bottom of the page.

"Release them into the wild and let them live out the remainder of their lives in peace"

06-10-2008

They'd either be attacked by other chimps, die of snakebite or starvation or succumb to one of a million other dangers like disease etc.

07-10-2008

We visited a couple of years ago and the the chimps in that old rusty cage really upset me!

I hope the find a good home asap to live out the rest of their days!

A real concern for the chimps
17-10-2008

Mole Hall has badly ran their zoo for so many years. Now with its closure, all the animals had to be re-homed immediately. The two elderly chimpanzees, Joey and Tubman, were initially going to sunny Spain to the MONA Foundation sanctuary where they would live out the rest of their lives with the sun on their backs. But after several weeks of campaign by the Cambridge based charity, MONA-UK, the Johnstone family who owns Mole Hall suddenly changed their minds and decided to transfer the chimps to a sub-standard facility in Wales (cefn-yr-erw). This is very worrying. If you do a search for "Joey and Tubman" on Google, you will see the amazing public campaign started by MONA-UK. Has anyone ever visited Cefn-yr-erw? From the Welsh website, they don't seem to have money for the upkeep of their animals, nor do they have money for enclosures of their chimps currently in quarantine. Also the park looks really dilapidated. Is there anyway we can stop this from happening?

17-10-2008

Its a pity the Welsh Sanctuary can't let two or three of their younger males go to Dudley Zoo which needs some males. It might make some space available at the sanctuary for those that really need it. I presume the two old males from Mole Hall are very ancient and maybe castrated, so not much point in considering them for any zoo group.

How come they haven't tried another alternative- Monkeyworld?

17-10-2008

I think several options were considered in the UK, many didn't have space for 2 old chimps (they're in the 40's). For the chimps to go to Monkeyworld, the owners would have to come up with a large sum of money up front (that's what I've heard anyway), and the Johnstone family, who own Mole Hall did not want to spend any money.

But MONA Foundation sanctuary in Spain had already agreed to take the old chimps, and MONA-UK has apparently raised a lot of funds and found a flight for the chimps to go there. Then all of a sudden the owners changed their minds by saying that they were advised that the chimps should stay in the UK. At the same time, the Welsh sanctuary jumped in on the campaign having seen the publicity from MONA-UK. I don't think the Mole Hall owners knew anything about Cefn-yr-erw, nor did they care whether Wales was a good option for the chimps (since their own zoo was shabby to say the least). And as far I know, the advise for the chimps to stay in the UK was misquoted. The staff of Mole Hall and many supporters for the move to Spain are absolutely gutted by the new decision.

Even if Cefn-yr-erw got there before MONA, I don't think Cefn-yr-erw is financially prepared to take the chimps. They seem to take in lots of animals without thinking about the financial cost of maintaining their facility. In the end, the welfare of their animals suffer. This is absolutely dangerous. How can a place like this exist in the UK?

The chimps could have had a great retirement in a wonderful sanctuary in Spain. I hope the public or perhaps animal charities could convince the Johnstone family that they had made a mistake and should change their minds.

18-10-2008

monkey world doesnt have any space to take any more chimps at the moment, they are currently awaiting funding to build a new enclosure

18-10-2008

I'm wondering what the 'advise' was that caused the change of heart about their destination. Spain seems a far preferable destination than a cold Welsh hillside and the Mole Hall people must see that too so there has to be a particular reason for the turnaround.

03-02-2009

I just thought that I would let the users of the forum know that the owner of Mole Hall passed away just before Christmas due to his terminal cancer.

04-02-2009

The two male Chimps actually ended up going to the welsh "rescue centre" Cefyn Yr Erw". Tubman and Joey were initially going to Spain and all the arrangements had been made , however the cost of sending them there combined with the distance involved were deciding factors in the change of heart. I dont believe there were any efforts to sell the park as a "going concern" , that was never an issue , though the estate house itself would be of considerable value. Its a great shame , it never reached its full potential and could have been so much better than it actually was , very sad. Z.