A CHARITY has called for the closure of a zoopark in Wales amid claims an escaped Lynx was the second of the zoo’s animals to have died in a week.

Ceredigion County Council said the decision to shoot Lillith had been taken to avoid her straying into urban areas.

However Lynx UK Trust fiercely criticised Borth Wild Animal Kingdom and the council and claimed the death of a second lynx, strangled to death while keepers who were attempting to move it, had been covered up.

The trust claimed the zoo had refused its offers of help and advice in catching Lillith and said “hobby zoos” should be closed down. Chief scientific advisor Dr Paul O’Donoghue said “The levels of incompetence and ineptitude are mind-blowing”

However the zoo has insisted it had its own expert trackers engaged in the hunt for Lillith. In a statement on its Facebook page, its owners said they were “devastated and outraged” that the lynx had been shot.