PROJECT UPDATE 12/2/2021:

Our plans to rehome three lions rescued from French circuses by AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection have been halted by a diagnosis of feline calicivirus (FCV) in the final stages of the lions pre-transport testing.

This highly infectious virus causes respiratory symptoms. The virus usually causes a latent infection which means the infected cat continues to carry and shed the virus. The virus is shed in respiratory droplets and can infect other cats over a large area.

Speaking about the diagnosis, Port Lympnes Animal Director, Simon Jeffery said: It has been an incredibly hard decision to make, but we cannot risk the infection of all of the other felines at Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve and will be unable to bring Timothy, Anthares and Mojito to the Reserve. An outbreak of FCV on-site would risk the health of the animals in our care and threaten all of our future rewilding plans for feline species. We will, of course, continue to work with our partners at AAP to ensure that Timothy, Anthares and Mojito will continue to receive the very best of care. Although we will be unable to bring these cats to Port Lympne, there are more lions in desperate need of our help.

Despite this setback, we have identified a pair of lions named Zulu and Wilma who are in desperate need of a new home. Zulu and Wilma are currently housed at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, who have struggled to find a new home for the pair.

They have been fully health checked and have tested negative for FCV. The Port Lympne team have worked tirelessly over the past few days and will be delighted to welcome the new additions to the Reserve in the coming days.

Port Lympnes Managing Director, Tony Kelly thanked the public for their support, saying: We are incredibly grateful for the support and generosity of the public who donated to our original appeal. I am sure that our supporters share our disappointment that Timothy, Anthares and Mojitos FCV diagnosis prevents them from being rehomed at Port Lympne. However, we are proud to be able to offer a home to Zulu and Wilma, and in due course the brown bears from Andorra, all of whom will enjoy a comfortable retirement with us here at Port Lympne.

Thanks to the generosity of donors our donors, we have raised £58,000 of our £250,000 target so far. This has gone directly towards the funding of custom-built sanctuaries for the lions, together with the simultaneous rescue of a family of brown bears and bear cubs from Andorra.

Despite the challenges posed by the Coronavirus and the difficult economic circumstances these enclosures, of which the lion enclosure will be one of the biggest in Europe, are virtually complete. Wilma and Zulu are due to arrive any day now and we will update you as soon as they are settled in!

Thank you for your continued support.

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The Howletts Wild Animal Trust need your help to provide a forever home to rescued animals in desperate need.

Before the unexpected second lockdown was announced, we began work on our most ambitious UK project to date. Our team plan to rehome a family of brown bears from Andorra and three lions who were rescued from a vile circus in France. Custom built sanctuaries will be created for these animals at Port Lympne, a 600-acre wildlife park in the Kent countryside.

Mojito, Timothy and Anthares were shamelessly bred purely to be exploited. Mojito and Timothy were rescued from the cruel, abusive clutches of Circus Wonderland where they were deliberately underfed to keep them weak and small enough to use for photoshoots. This has left Mojito with a serious health condition for which he will require specialised care for the rest of his life. Anthares was confiscated from another circus where he was forced to perform and lived in a tiny, filthy trailer. It was only thanks to the actions of AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection that these poor lions escaped short and painful lives.

Our friends at Bears In Mind alerted us to the plight of Julio, Enciam and Neu: three brown bears who will soon be homeless, along with their three young cubs. The familys current home is an adventure park in Andorra. However, the park will soon be closing their zoo and this young family desperately needs a forever home where their cubs will be safe to grow up.

Our expert team has designed safe, custom-built sanctuaries where these animals can live peacefully and display natural behaviours while receiving the best possible care at Port Lympne. However, without vital visitor and short breaks income, the future of this vitally important project has been thrown into doubt.

We barely survived the first national Coronavirus lockdown and received no meaningful support from the UK government. The £100m Zoo Animals Fund was inaccessible to almost all large animal parks and we reopened with our future on a knife edge and a £2m hole in our finances.

However, we are fighting more than a virus. We refuse to allow another lockdown to disrupt our mission to protect animals in desperate need of our help. We can not ignore the suffering of Mojito, Timothy and Anthares or Julio, Enciam and Neu and their babies. We have a duty to step in and write the final chapter in their rescue and rehoming story.

Regardless of whether our gates are open or not, it costs us more than £300,000 a week just to operate our Parks. Our animal keepers cannot be furloughed, our food bills will not change and the costs of keeping our animals and teams safe remains the same. This lockdown has pushed Port Lympne and Howletts into hibernation. Tragically, without your help we may be forced to abandon our animal rescue and rehoming plans.

The only way we can save these animals is with your help. Any donation you make, no matter how small, will help us to provide a safe forever home where Mojito, Timothy, Anthares, Julio, Enciam, Neu and their cubs can live peacefully for the rest of their lives.

Keeping both parks running during lockdown is going to cost us £1,200,000. The creation of new sanctuaries at Port Lympne for Mojito, Timothy, Anthares, Julio, Enciam, Neu and their cubs will cost £269,000. We need your help to raise £1,469,000 to give these animals the future they deserve.

Our gates may be closed, but our hearts are open. These animals need us and we need you. Please help us.