Buyer for troubled owl sanctuary


 

The owl sanctuary has been closed since July

A businessman is to bid to buy an owl sanctuary which closed earlier this year following allegations of mistreatment of the birds.
The New Forest Owl Sanctuary closed in July following a BBC South investigation which revealed appalling conditions at the centre.
Now Giles Talbot, who also runs the Knockhatch Adventure Park in East Sussex, is to put together a formal bid to take the sanctuary over and turn it into a reptile and raptor centre, reducing the number of birds.
The deal will not be straightforward, as the sanctuary is a charity and any sale must go through the Charity Commission.
Mr Talbot has been managing the centre for the last few weeks. The sanctuary closed earlier this summer following a police raid in the wake of the BBC investigation on 30 June.

Giles Talbot runs another park in East Sussex

He has already made several changes to the centre with the help of volunteers, including changing the birds' diet and making the cages more suitable.
He has been charging the trustees £1,200 per day, though he says this was merely to put pressure on the charity commission.
He said: "The charge, which will obviously never be paid, was basically to get the charity commission to make some sort of decision as to what they were going to do with these birds."
The charity commission point out that it is actually up to the trustees of the owl sanctuary to take any decisions. But even if the trustees wanted to sell the birds, they can only do so at full market price - or give them to a similar charity.