“A zoo owner has been fined and banned from owning animals after admitting keeping various birds and animals in squalid conditions.

Peter Lockhart, 50, was the co-owner of the Fife Animal Park, near Cupar, which closed in February 2014 after its owners were unable to sell it.

At Dundee Sheriff Court, Lockhart admitted failing to ensure the welfare of the animals in his park.

He also admitted trading in endangered species without a licence.

Protected species at the zoo included ring tailed and red ruffed lemur, a Geoffrey’s marmoset, a lesser-sulphur crested cockatoo, swinhoes pheasants, hermann’s tortoises, wildcats, and barn and eagle owls.

Lockhart, of Newton of Falkland, Fife, admitted nine offences under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 and Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997 in October last year.

He admitted he “failed to provide a suitable, clean and ventilated environment with adequate cover and bedding”.

Lockhart also failed to provide a suitable diet for the animals or adequate treatment for conditions that they were suffering from, or to protect them from injury, suffering or disease.

He was fined £2,000 and disqualified from owning or keeping any type of animals, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and primates for five years.”

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Source: BBC news

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