‘You can’t furlough an otter’: why one family-run zoo remains shut

Andy Cowell runs the Fenn Bell Conservation Project in Medway, Kent.

After 12 weeks of closure, as running costs mounted, zoos were suddenly told with less than a week’s notice that they could reopen on Monday to reduced visitors.

But smaller zoos such as Fenn Bell have had to spend funds they barely had just to create space for visitors to visit safely, and Cowell is still a couple of weeks away from being ready.

He tells Richard Sprenger why he is so angry at how the situation has been handled and fears the possibility of having to euthanise his animals.